Question

What does a punnett square show us?

Answer 1

Punnett square is a square-shaped diagram and this diagram is very important for the breeding experiments. It clearly sort out the genes.

Complete answer:
1)A Punnett square is mainly used to denote the genotypes in breeding experiments. It can also be used to speculate the most likely genotype of an offspring of an organism having a particular genotype. In this Punnett square, the alleles of parental genes are written on the sides of the square-shaped Punnett square which helps to determine the genotypes of offspring that determine whether they are dominant or recessive and they are homozygous or heterozygous by crossing the parental alleles across the Punnett square.

2)The use and significance of Punnett square can be shown by the following illustration, In an experiment related to garden peas suppose that G represents green pod in peas and g represent yellow pod in peas, and both parent plants are heterozygous dominant, that is they have genotype Gg, so with the help of Punnett square, we can determine the genotype of the offsprings.

| G| g
---|---|---
G | GGHomozygous dominant| GgHeterozygous dominant
g| GgHeterozygous dominant| gg Homozygous recessive.

Note: The Punnett square is named after a scientist Punnett.C.Reginald who discovered the technique of the Punnett square. The punnet squares can be used for different crosses such as monohybrid cross, dihybrid cross, etc. For dihybrid or multi-hybrid crosses, the method of Punnett square used is known as branching Punnett square or tree or tree method and it is also known as the fork line method.