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Question 33

In the fruit fly Drosophila melanogaster, two genes control eye color and wing shape:

  • For eye color, the allele for red eyes (EEE) is dominant to the allele for sepia eyes (eee).
  • For wing shape, the allele for normal wings (VVV) is dominant to the allele for vestigial wings (vvv).

A geneticist crossed two Drosophila flies that were heterozygous for both genes (EeVvEeVvEeVv). The expected phenotypic ratio of their offspring under the hypothesis of independent assortment is 9:3:3:19:3:3:19:3:3:1.

The geneticist obtained a total of 320320320 offspring from this cross. The observed numbers for each phenotype were:

  • Red eyes, normal wings: 171171171
  • Sepia eyes, normal wings: 696969
  • Red eyes, vestigial wings: 545454
  • Sepia eyes, vestigial wings: 262626
a.

Use the chi-squared formula

χ2=∑(O−E)2E \chi^2 = \sum \frac{(O - E)^2}{E} χ2=∑E(O−E)2​

to calculate the χ2\chi^2χ2 value for these data.

[3]
b.

State the number of degrees of freedom for this test.

[1]
c.

Using the critical values table below (for p=0.05p = 0.05p=0.05), determine whether the null hypothesis (that there is no significant difference between the observed and expected results) should be accepted or rejected, and explain your answer.

Degrees of freedomCritical value (p=0.05p = 0.05p=0.05)
13.84
25.99
37.82
49.49
[2]
Markscheme

Analysis Questions

  1. A Level
  2. /Biology
  3. /Analysis

45 exam-style questions on OCR A A Level Biology Analysis. Each one has a worked solution and a mark scheme showing where the marks go.

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