Puzzling Adventures: Alien Genetics

What if, on another planet, it took five parents to produce a brood?














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Problem 2: What does that tell you about the possibility that just two sexes are important, with B dominant over b?

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Problem 3: Now suppose you do a third breeding experiment in which you start with S1, S2 and S5 having the value B whereas S3 and S4 have the value b, then all 1,000 children in the next generation have the b phenotype. This is different! In the following generation, 26% have the B phenotype and 74% have the b phenotype. Crossing the B phenotype children gives more than 15% that have the b phenotype – symmetric to the other case. Can you make a good hypothesis about which parents determine the trait value and what the rule is for which trait will show up?

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ABOUT THE AUTHOR(S)

Dennis Shasha is at the Courant Institute of Mathematical Sciences, New York University. His most recent puzzle book, Puzzles for Programmers and Pros, was published in May 2007 by John Wiley and Sons/Wrox.


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  1. 1. ZenaV 04:03 PM 12/10/08

    Hmm....sounds like a formula that would breed mental illness....actually it sound polygamous...

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