Answers for Biology Assignment

Name:-Khalid Abdulhakim Grade and section:-12B

1) First, the law of dominance states that in a gene with heterozygous alleles, the
visible( phenotypic) outcome will only express either one of the present alleles and
masks the other unexpressed allele. The expressed allele is known as dominant allele
while the masked one is called a recessive allele.
Second, the law of independent assortment states that when a gene with heterozygous
alleles is segregated, each allele will carry its own characteristics without being affected
or influenced by the other allele.
Therefore, we can conclude that these two laws work in a condition that involves a gene
with heterozygous alleles.
2) Alleles: R=round ,r=wrinkled ,Y=yellow ,y=green
Cross: Round and Yellow pea plants X Round and Yellow pea plants
(RrYy) (RrYy)

Gametes: RY,Ry,rY,ry RY,Ry,rY,ry

X RY Ry rY ry

RY RRYY RRYy RrYY RrYy

Ry RRYy RRyy RrYy Rryy

rY RrYY RrYy rrYY rrYy

ry RrYy Rryy rrYy rryy

Phenotypic ratio:- 9 round & yellow:3 round & green:3 wrinkled & yellow:1 wrinkled &
green

Therefore, if there are 364 seeds in total,

the number of seeds expected to be round and yellow= 364*(9/16)

=204.75 round and yellow seeds

3) Phenotype is the overall physically visible outcome while genotype is the genetical
outcome of breeding. Due to the law of dominance, in every heterozygous gene, only
one gene can be expressed and the other gene is masked. Thus, phenotypically, we
can’t identify whether a trait is pure or heterozygous where as we can clearly identify
them genotypically.
4) Test cross is a breeding experiment that helps us determine the genotype of an
organism showing dominant phenotype because the organism may be a pure breed or a
 heterozygous for a trait. Therefore, it is crossed with a known recessive organism of that
individual trait.
Example:- Let’s take a purple flowered pea plant(P). Since purple is a dominant trait, we
can’t if it’s a pure purple or a heterozygous purple. Therefore, we breed it with a white
flowered pea plant(the recessive trait, p). There are two possibilities.
a) If it is a pure/homozygous:

X p p

P Pp Pp

P Pp Pp

All outcomes are heterozygous which means that all are purple flowered.

b) If it is a heterozygous:

X p p

P Pp Pp

p pp pp

50% of the off springs are purple flowered while the other 50% are white flowered.

Conclusion:- if the outcome of the test cross is 100% dominant, it means that the

unknown was homozygous and if the outcome is 50-50, the unknown is

heterozygous.

5) Some of the reasons Mendel succeeded in his experiment are:

 He concentrated in one or few characters at a time.
 He made controlled crosses and maintained careful numerical records of the
results.
 He suggested ‘factors’ as the cause of characters.
 Pitsum sativum a.k.a Garden pea was a wise choice since its flowers are large
and easy for emasculation.
 Since garden peas were self-pollinating crops, hybridization with other varieties
create no problems like reduction in seed number.
 Since there are many varieties of traits in garden pea, any number of
hybridizations can be made taking two traits simultaneously.
 Garden peas are short duration crops which means that 3 or 4 generations can
be raised in a year which means that it’s easy to track the course of transmission
between several generations.