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fishingspree2
Jun7-10, 01:57 PM
Hello,

I want to study the inheritance of red eyes and white eyes in drosophila.
I have mated red-eyed females with white eyed males.

F1: All F1 females were white eyed and all F1 males were red-eyed.
19 white eyed females and 22 red eyed males.

I have also crossed the females and males of the F1 generation, but this is not relevant for my question.

I am trying to draw a pedigree chart for the P generation and their offspring, but there is a small problem. I know that this trait is sex-linked, and that the white eyes allele is recessive. Let R denote the red eyes allele and r the white eyes allele. Here is what I get:
http://i46.tinypic.com/16m3vrc.jpg
Please, what is the problem?

Ygggdrasil
Jun7-10, 06:52 PM
You are correct, these data are clearly inconsistent with the white eye trait being a sex-linked recessive trait. These data are consistent, however, with a different type of inheritance for the white eye trait. Can you determine what this mode of inheritance is?

fishingspree2
Jun7-10, 08:00 PM
Hmm I don't really see what mode of inheritance it could be... can you give me a hint?

Ygggdrasil
Jun7-10, 08:03 PM
Well, first consider whether it is sex-linked or not. Do the data suggest that it is sex-linked? Once you figure out whether it is sex-linked or autosomal, you can try assuming that it is recessive and see whether the results match, then try assuming its dominant.

fishingspree2
Jun7-10, 09:10 PM
I have tried sex-linked and it didn't work. The data suggests it is sex-linked, and I know that answer is recessive sex-linked. Recessive sex-linked is what I tried and it didnt work. I think I am missing something... please help me

EDIT: By the way, the method I have tried is assuming the inheritance mode is sex-linked. Maybe I should have put R as an exponent

EDIT2: After re-reading your post it seems like you've understood my try of the white eye being a sex-linked recessive trait. This is what the data suggests. However, the pedigree does not work, and I thought after reading on wikipedia that it was indeed a sex-linked recessive trait. I am lost

Ygggdrasil
Jun7-10, 09:26 PM
Assume white eyes are a sex-linked dominant trait. In your red-eyed female x white-eyed male cross, what would you expect?

Now, the white eyed trait is normally a recessive sex-linked trait. Is this problem from a class or did you actually do this experiment and get this data?