Question

Give reasons for the appearance of new combinations of characters in the F₂ progeny

Answer 1

• F₁ plants have round and yellow seeds.
• Cross between generations can give rise to new combinations in F₂ generation with round-yellow, round green, wrinkled yellow and wrinkled green in the ratio of 9 : 3 : 3 : 1. 
• This shows that the chances for the pea seed to be round or wrinkled do not depend on their chances to be yellow or green.
• Hence each pair of alleles is independent of the other pair. 
• This is called as independent assortment.