If Mendel's crosses between pea plants with round yellow seeds and pea plants with wrinkled green seeds had produced an F₂ generation in which many more than one-sixteenth of the plants had wrinkled green seeds,the conclusion would have been that A) the round and yellow traits are linked. B) the wrinkled and green traits are unlinked. C) all traits in peas assort independently. D) all traits in peas are linked. E) the green allele is dominant.

Question

Quizplus · Accepted Answer

If the traits of seed shape and color were unlinked and assorting independently, the expected ratio of the F2 generation would have been 9:3:3:1. However, if the observed results showed more than one-sixteenth of the plants with wrinkled green seeds, it indicates that the traits are linked and do not assort independently. This suggests that the genes controlling seed shape and color are located on the same chromosome and therefore tend to be inherited together, which is consistent with option A.

If Mendel's Crosses Between Pea Plants with Round Yellow Seeds