Understanding Mendel’s Principle of Dominance: Exploring the Expression of Dominant and Recessive Traits in Offspring

the principle of dominance states ________.

The principle of dominance, also known as Mendel’s principle of dominance, states that in a cross between two individuals that are purebred for contrasting traits (one dominant and one recessive), the dominant trait will be expressed in the offspring

The principle of dominance, also known as Mendel’s principle of dominance, states that in a cross between two individuals that are purebred for contrasting traits (one dominant and one recessive), the dominant trait will be expressed in the offspring. This means that the dominant allele will mask the expression of the recessive allele and determine the visible characteristic or phenotype of the organism.

Dominant alleles are those that can express their traits even in the presence of a recessive allele. They are usually represented by uppercase letters. For example, in Mendel’s experiments with pea plants, he found that the allele for tallness (T) was dominant over the allele for shortness (t).

On the other hand, recessive alleles are only expressed when an individual has two copies of that allele (homozygous). They are represented by lowercase letters. In this case, the recessive trait of shortness was only observed when an individual had a genotype of tt.

Therefore, according to the principle of dominance, if a pea plant with the genotype Tt (heterozygous) is crossed with another plant of the same genotype Tt, the offspring will display the dominant trait of tallness, as the dominant allele T will dominate over the recessive allele t.

In summary, the principle of dominance states that in a cross between organisms with different alleles for a specific trait, the dominant allele will be expressed while the recessive allele will be masked.

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