The $$\mathbb {Z}_2$$ Z 2 -Genus of Kuratowski Minors

A drawing of a graph on a surface is independently even if every pair of nonadjacent edges in the drawing crosses an even number of times. The $$\mathbb {Z}_2$$ -genus of a graph G is the minimum g such that G has an independently even drawing on the orientable surface of genus g. An unpublished result by Robertson and Seymour implies that for every t, every graph of sufficiently large genus contains as a minor a projective $$t\times t$$ grid or one of the following so-called t -Kuratowski graphs: $$K_{3,t}$$ , or t copies of $$K_5$$ or  $$K_{3,3}$$ sharing at most two common vertices. We show that the $$\mathbb {Z}_2$$ -genus of graphs in these families is unbounded in t; in fact, equal to their genus. Together, this implies that the genus of a graph is bounded from above by a function of its $$\mathbb {Z}_2$$ -genus, solving a problem posed by Schaefer and Štefankovič, and giving an approximate version of the Hanani–Tutte theorem on orientable surfaces. We also obtain an analogous result for Euler genus and Euler $$\mathbb {Z}_2$$ -genus of graphs.