Exploring Mendelian Inheritance

In this lab activity, you will explore the fundamental principles of heredity as discovered by Gregor Mendel. You will examine how traits are passed from parents to offspring and understand the basic patterns of inheritance. This will be done using a simulator that shows the phenotype and genotype of offspring of parents with different genotypes and phenotypes.

Group 1

Drag two homozygous (FF) black mice into the Parent 1 and Parent 2 boxes in the simulator. Click Breed once to view the five offspring of these parents.

Question 1a

Multiple choice

What do the offspring of the two homozygous (FF) black-furred parents look like?

All white fur
Mostly white fur, some black fur
Mix of white and black fur
Mostly black fur, some white fur
All black fur

Question 1b

Multiple choice

Click Clear on the simulator, and drag two homozygous (ff) white mice into the parent boxes. Click Breed several times. What is the phenotype of the offspring with these parents?

All white fur
Mostly white fur, some black fur
Mix of white and black fur
Mostly black fur, some white fur
All black fur

Question 1c

Short answer

Do you think mouse offspring will always look like their parents? Explain your answer.

Group 2

Activity A:

Patterns of inheritance Get the Gizmo ready: Click Clear. Drag a homozygous black-furred mouse (FF) and a homozygous white-furred mouse (ff) into the parent boxes, but don’t click Breed yet.

Question: What patterns are shown by offspring traits?

Question 2a

Multiple choice

Predict: What do you think the offspring of a homozygous (FF) black-furred mouse and a homozygous (ff) white-furred mouse will look like?

All white fur
Mostly white fur, some black fur
Mixed white fur and black fur
Mostly black fur, some white fur
All black fur

Question 2b

Multiple choice

Observe: Click Breed several times. What do you see?

All white fur
Mostly white fur, some black fur
Mixed white fur and black fur
Mostly black fur, some white fur
All black fur

Question 2c

Multiple choice

Observe: Drag two offspring into the Holding Cages. These mice are called hybrids because their parents had different traits. Click Clear, and then breed the two hybrids.

What do you see now?

All white fur
Mostly white fur, some black fur
Mixed white fur and black fur
Mostly black fur, some white fur
All black fur

Question 2d

Short answer

Experiment: Turn on Show statistics. Click Breed until there are 100 offspring from these two hybrid black furred mice whose parents where homozygous (FF) black and homozygous (ff) white mice. What percentage of the offspring were black-furred and what percentage were white-furred?

Question 2e

Short answer

Explore: Try other combinations of mouse parents. Write the results of each experiment in your notes. When you have finished, answer the following questions. (Note: Refer to the parents as “Homozygous black,” “Homozygous white,” or “Heterozygous.”)

Which parent combination(s) yield only white offspring?

Question 2f

Short answer

Which parent combination(s) yield only black offspring? (Note: Refer to the parents as “Homozygous black,” “Homozygous white,” or “Heterozygous.”)

Question 2g

Short answer

Which parent combination(s) yield a mixture of black and white offspring? (Note: Refer to the parents as “Homozygous black,” “Homozygous white,” or “Heterozygous.”)

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