Mendel's Dihybrid Cross Experiment

Mendel's Dihybrid Cross

• Mendel designed experiments to determine if the pattern of inheritance for one trait affects another trait
• He used true-breeding plants with two different traits, making it a dihybrid cross
• The cross involved plants with yellow, round seeds (YYRR) and plants with green, wrinkled seeds (yyrr)

F1 Generation

• All F1 generation plants displayed dominant forms of each trait, resulting in yellow, round seeds

F2 Generation

• Mendel let the F1 plants self-fertilize, causing recessive forms of each trait to reappear
• The same ratio of 9:3:3:1 was always obtained, regardless of the two traits followed

Ratio Explanation

• For every 1 offspring with recessive forms of both traits (yyrr), there are:
  • 3 offspring with 1 recessive form of a trait and a dominant form of the second trait (Y__rr)
  • 3 offspring with the opposite combination of recessive and dominant forms of the two traits (yyR__)
  • 9 offspring displaying dominant forms of both traits (Y__R__)

Law of Independent Assortment

• During gamete formation, the 2 alleles for one gene segregate or assort independently of the alleles for the other gene
• The inheritance of one trait has no influence on the inheritance of another trait

This quiz explores Mendel's experiment on dihybrid cross, where he investigated the inheritance pattern of two traits. He crossed true-breeding plants with different traits to observe the outcome. How much do you know about this experiment?