Question

How do Mendel’s experiments show that traits are inherited independently?

Answer 1

Mendel crossed pea plants having round green seeds (RRyy) with pea plants having wrinkled yellow seeds (rrYY).

An example of dihybrid crosses

Since the F₁ plants are formed after crossing pea plants having green round seeds and pea plants having yellow wrinkled seeds, F₁ generation will have both these characters in them. However, as we know that yellow seed colour and round seeds are dominant characters, therefore, the F₁ plants will have yellow round seeds.

Then this F₁ progeny was self-pollinated and the F₂ progeny was found to have yellow round seeds, green round seeds, yellow wrinkled seeds, and green wrinkled seeds in the ratio of 9:3:3:1.

Independent inheritance of two different traits

In the above cross, more than two factors are involved, and these are independently inherited.