Suppose that the botanist carried out the test cross described in Parts A and B and determined that the original green-pod plant was heterozygous (Gg). Which of Mendel’s findings does her test cross illustrate?

Question

View Available Hint(s)for Part C

linkage
chromosome theory of inheritance
law of independent assortment
law of segregation

Answer 1

The test cross you described, where a heterozygous organism (in this case, the green-pod plant with genotype Gg) is mated with a homozygous recessive organism (gg), illustrates the law of segregation.

Mendel's law of segregation states that the two alleles for a trait segregate (separate) from each other during gamete formation, so that each gamete carries only one allele for each gene. In this test cross, the offspring would reveal the segregation of the G (dominant green pod) and g (recessive yellow pod) alleles, showing the expected phenotypic ratio (in a large enough sample) that supports this law.