Martian Genetics
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Martian Genetics

Puzzle 4: Facial Warts and Family Trees

A Martian's facial warts are determined by a single autosomal (which is to say, not gender-specific) chromosome that comes in two varieties (F or f). The alleles are codominant, so there are three possibilities: red facial warts (FF), green facial warts (ff) and no facial warts whatsoever (Ff).

A traditional Martian marriage consists of one female Martian and two males. The female Martian only mates with her two husbands. Some Martians live in arrangements called clatches, in which two groups of married Martians raise their offspring together. One day, you meet a clatch with six adults and six children. You are told that each adult female is the mother of three children, and each adult male has fathered at least one. Given the information below, can you identify the father of each child?

  • Two of the adult males, Kwo and Glarn, have green facial warts.
  • Pvin, an adult female, and Ogna, an adult male, have red facial warts.
  • Efq, the other adult female, and Jisba, the remaining adult male, have no facial warts.
  • Three of the children, Af, Bu and Spogu, have no facial warts.
  • Two of the children, Kzer and Nwop, have red facial warts.
  • The remaining child, Dlek, has green facial warts.
  • Kwo and Efq are not married.
  • Jisba is not Dlek's father, and Ogna is not Kzer's father.
  • Glarn and Jisba have each fathered exactly one child.
  • Bu and Spogu share the same mother.

1. Who is Af's father?

2. Who is Bu's father?

3. Who is Dlek's father?

4. Who is Kzer's father?

5. Who is Nwop's father?

6. Who is Spogu's father?


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