Avesh Thuluvath

Biology-210
Section 74
Sarah Lorenzen

Biology Lab 3: Data Analysis

1. (number of recombinant ascospores/total number of ascospores) x 100 = approximate

map distance

[(16+14+20+12)x4]/[(16+14+20+12+20+18)x8] x 100 = 31 m.u.

0.5 x (number of M2 asci/total number of asci) x 100 = approximate map distance

0.5 x (16+14+20+12)/ (16+14+20+12+20+18) x 100 = 31 m.u.

When calculating map distance using the ascospore formula, I multiplied the number of
recombinant asci by 4, because out of the 8 ascospores in each asci, only 4 undergo
recombination.

2. (number of recombinant ascospores/total number of ascospores) x 100 = approximate

map distance

[(1105+1117+973+1021)x4]/[(1717+1490+ 1105+1117+973+1021)x8] x 100 =28.39

m.u.

0.5 x (number of M2 asci/total number of asci) x 100 = approximate map distance

0.5 x (1105+1117+973+1021)/ (1717+1490+ 1105+1117+973+1021) x 100 =28.39 m.u.

The map value that I calculated using my data (31 m.u.) is slightly different from the
value attained through the class data (28.39 m.u.). This variation is likely due to the
difficulty in identifying each different type of asci. It is possible that students in the lab
section counted the same asci multiple times, thus changing the recombinant ratios.
Hence, this variation in gene distance is likely a result of human error.

3.
4. The maximum frequency possible for second division segregation patterns (M2) is
66.7%. This indicates that a gene is located 33.3 m.u. or greater from its centromere. If
the gene locus is located more than 33 m.u. from the centromere, the distribution of m
and m+ alleles would be random in essence. This is because there would be an increased
occurrence of double, triple and higher-order crossovers that would prevent the detection
of individual crossover events. As noted in the lab notebook, the limiting case would be
when each of the six different patterns is observed with equal frequency (resulting from a
ratio of 1/3 M1 asci and 2/3 M2 asci).