Question

State and explain the law of independent assortment with a suitable example.

Answer 1

This law is a part of the Mendelian inheritance principles given by Gregor Mendel. This law is based on the dihybrid cross and it highlights the property of inheritance of characters in an individual.

Complete Step by Step Answer:
The law of independent assortment is based upon the dihybrid cross. It states that the inheritance of one specific character is always independent of the inheritance of other characters within the same individual. So, if the inheritance of more than one character is being studied at a time, the factors or genes for each character assorts, independent of the other genes or factors.
The best example of this law is the Mendelian dihybrid cross. The development of new combinations in the ${F}_{2}$ generation, such as round green and wrinkled yellow pea seeds, indicates that the shape and the colour of the seeds are assorted independent of each other.

Additional Information:
The law of independent assortment was one of the laws of inheritance given by Mendel. The other laws under the theory of Mendelian inheritance are
The law of dominance
- This law states that, in a heterozygotic cross, the dominant allele causes the recessive allele to be hidden or masked, that is, it is not expressed in the phenotype although it is present as a separate allele in the genotype. - These recessive alleles only express themselves in a homozygous plant. For example-Allele for wrinkled seed in peas is a recessive allele.
The law of segregation
- According to this law, only a single allele for a trait is inherited in a gamete and regardless of dominant or recessive genes. For example, in a dihybrid cross, a heterozygous plant gamete has only one allele of a trait.

Note:
- The law of independent assortment works only in case of Mendelian inheritance.
- However, there are theories of non-mendelian inheritance and the theory of linkage. According to this, specific genes that belong to common linkage groups of an allele are inherited together and are not assorted independent of each other.