Mendel’s Law of Independent Assortment: How Different Genes Are Inherited Independently.

Mendel’s Law of Independent Assortment

accounted for by the random alignment of homologous pairs during Metaphase I

Mendel’s Law of Independent Assortment is one of his fundamental principles of genetics that explains how different genes are inherited independently of each other. According to this law, during sexual reproduction, the alleles of different genes segregate randomly into individual gametes, which means that the inheritance of one allele does not influence the inheritance of another allele.

Mendel discovered this law during his experiments with pea plants, where he observed that when he crossed pea plants that were heterozygous for two different traits, each trait segregated independently of the other in their offspring. This means that the inheritance of one trait did not affect the inheritance of the other trait.

For example, let’s consider pea plants with two different traits: seed color (yellow or green) and seed texture (smooth or wrinkled). If a heterozygous pea plant (YySs) is crossed with another heterozygous pea plant (YySs), the offspring would have 16 different possible combinations of alleles of seed color and texture (YS, Ys, yS, ys), and each of these combinations would be equally likely to occur. This supports the law of independent assortment, which states that different genes are inherited separately from one another.

In summary, Mendel’s Law of Independent Assortment states that during sexual reproduction, the inheritance of one gene does not influence the inheritance of another gene. This principle is important in understanding how traits are inherited and for predicting the outcomes of genetic crosses.

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