explain principle of independent assortment
Answers
Answer:
The Principle of Independent Assortment describes how different genes independently separate from one another when reproductive cells develop. Independent assortment of genes and their corresponding traits was first observed by Gregor Mendel in 1865 during his studies of genetics in pea plants. Mendel was performing dihybrid crosses, which are crosses between organisms that differ with regard to two traits. He discovered that the combinations of traits in the offspring of his crosses did not always match the combinations of traits in the parental organisms. From his data, he formulated the Principle of Independent Assortment.
The law of segregation lets us predict how a single feature associated with a single gene is inherited. In some cases, though, we might want to predict the inheritance of two characteristics associated with two different genes. How can we do this?
Refresher on the law of segregation
To make an accurate prediction, we need to know whether the two genes are inherited independently or not. That is, we need to know whether they "ignore" one another when they're sorted into gametes, or whether they "stick together" and get inherited as a unit.
When Gregor Mendel asked this question, he found that different genes were inherited independently of one another, following what's called the law of independent assortment. In this article, we'll take a closer look at the law of independent assortment and how it is used to make predictions. We'll also see when and why the law of independent assortment does (or doesn't!) hold true.
Note: If you are not yet familiar with how individual genes are inherited, you may want to check out the article on the law of segregation or the introduction to heredity video before you dive into this article.