In cucumbers, dull fruit (D) is dominant over glossy fruit (d), orange fruit (R) is dominant over cream fruit (r), and bitter cotyledons (B) are dominant over non-bitter cotyledons (b). The three characters are encoded by genes located on different pairs of chromosomes. A plant homozygous for dull, orange fruit and bitter cotyledons is crossed with a plant that has glossy, cream fruit and non-bitter cotyledons. The F1 are intercrossed to produce the F2 .

a. Give the phenotypes and their expected proportions in the F2 .
b. An F1 plant is crossed with a plant that has glossy, cream fruit and nonbitter cotyledons. Give the phenotypes and expected proportions among the progeny of this cross.

a)

27/64 Dull, Orange, Bitter9/64 Dull, Orange, non-bitter9/64 Dull, cream, bitter9/64 glossy, orange, bitter3/64 dull, cream, non bitter3/64 glossy, orange, non-bitter3/64 glossy, cream, bitter1/64 glossy, cream, non bitter

b)

1/8 Dull, Orange, Bitter1/8 Dull, Orange, non-bitter1/8 Dull, cream, bitter1/8 glossy, orange, bitter1/8 dull, cream, non bitter1/8 glossy, orange, non-bitter1/8 glossy, cream, bitter1/8 glossy, cream, non bitter

Explanation:

Dull fruit (D) is dominant over glossy fruit (d)Orange fruit (R) is dominant over cream fruit (r)Bitter cotyledons (B) are dominant over non-bitter cotyledons (b)

The three genes are located on different chromosomes.

a) A plant homozygous for dull, orange fruit and bitter cotyledons (DDRRBB) is crossed with a plant that has glossy, cream fruit and non-bitter cotyledons (ddrrbb).

The F1  (DdRrBb) are intercrossed (DdRrBb X DdRrBb) to produce the F2.

The genes are on different chromosomes so they assort independently during meiosis. If you do a Punnett Square of this cross, you will see that the phenotypic frequencies are:

27/64 DRB (Dull, Orange, Bitter)9/64 DRb (Dull, Orange, non-bitter)9/64 DrB (Dull, cream, bitter)9/64 dRB (glossy, orange, bitter)3/64 Drb (dull, cream, non bitter)3/64 dRb (glossy, orange, non-bitter)3/64 drB (glossy, cream, bitter)1/64 drb (glossy, cream, non bitter)

 

b) An F1 plant  (DdRrBb) is crossed with a plant that has glossy, cream fruit and nonbitter cotyledons (ddrrbb).

In this case, the homozygous recessive plant can only produce 1 type of gamete (drb). The phenotype of the offspring will depend entirely on the type of gametes the F1 plant produced, of which there are 8 types:

DRB, DRb, DrB, Drb, dRB, dRb, drB, drb.

As the genes are independent, all of these gametes have the same probability of being produced: 1/8.

The phenotypes and their proportions will be:

1/8 DRB (Dull, Orange, Bitter)1/8 DRb (Dull, Orange, non-bitter)1/8 DrB (Dull, cream, bitter)1/8 dRB (glossy, orange, bitter)1/8 Drb (dull, cream, non bitter)1/8 dRb (glossy, orange, non-bitter)1/8 drB (glossy, cream, bitter)1/8 drb (glossy, cream, non bitter)

A. mitochondrion b. nucleus