Question

Mang Marcelino owns purebred red cows. In his farm he noticed that after a typhoon several months ago, all of the fences that seperate his cattle from his neighbor's cattle were destroyed. During the time that the fences were down,three bulls, one from each neighbor,mingled with his cows. For awhile,he thought that none of the bulls found his cows, but over the months , he noticed that all of his cows are pregnant. He suspected that one of the bulls is the father .which bull is it? Help Mang Marcelino look for the father by solving the given problem.


Q1.Will you able to trace the father of the calves? What are the possible phenotypes of the calves for each now?

Q2.Do you think you will make Mang Marcelino happy about the result of your investigation?

Q3.How will you explain it to him?

Q4.How will you apply what you have learned to improve the breeds of livestock in your area?

Answer 1

1. Yes, we will be able to trace the father of the calves.

• DNA fingerprinting can help us find the biological parents of the calves.
• Since the mothers are all purebred red cows (recessive trait), the calves will be red if the bull was red.
• If the bull was black homozygous (dominant trait), the calves will be black.
• If the bull was black heterozygous, the calves have equal probability of being either black or red.

2. Yes, Mang Marcelino will be happy. Using existing technology and Punnett Square method, we can trace the father.

3. We can explain it to him by showing a genetic cross and explaining the concept of dominant and recessive traits.

4. To improve the breeds of livestock we can do the following:

• Self crossing of superior cattles of the same breed.
• Cross breeding between superior male of one breed and superior female of another breed.