Table of Contents
Table of Contents
- Law of Independent Assortment
- Law of Dominance
- Summary
- What’s Next?
In the last segment of the chapter ‘Heredity and Evolution’, we learnt about the law of segregation. In this segment, let us study the law of independent assortment and law of dominance.
Law of Independent Assortment
The Law of Independent Assortment states that the segregation of one pair of alleles during meiosis is independent of the segregation of other pairs of alleles. This law was first proposed by Gregor Mendel in the 19th century, and is a fundamental law of genetics. It states that alleles of different genes assort independently of one another during the formation of gametes. This means that the inheritance of one allele pair has no effect on the inheritance of another allele pair.
Law of Dominance
The law of dominance is a fundamental concept in genetics that states that when two different versions (alleles) of a gene are present, only one allele will be expressed in the phenotype (the physical characteristics/traits of an organism). This means that one allele of the gene (the dominant allele) will be expressed and the other allele (the recessive allele) will be masked.
What does the Law of independent assortment state?
- Segregation is independent of the other genes.
- The law of independent assortment states that genes of independent traits assort independently during gamete formation.
For example, the alleles of gene ‘A’, that is ‘A’ and ‘a’, will get assorted in the gametes
independent of the two alleles of gene ‘B’.
- So, the genes can get distributed randomly during gamete formation.
Meiosis
What does the Law of Dominance state?
- The law of dominance states that an organism with at least one dominant allele will display the effect of the dominant allele.
- In a homozygous individual, the same allele is expressed.
For example, in ‘BB’ and ‘bb’, the individual with genotype ‘BB’ will have black eyes and the one with genotype ‘bb’ will have brown eyes.
