Question

In a plant tallness is dominant over dwarfness and red flower is dominant over white. Starting with the parents work out a dihybrid cross. What is standard dihybrid ratio? Do you think the values would deviate if the two genes in question are interacting with each other?

Answer 1

The following Punnett Square shows a cross between a tall plant with red flowers (TTRR)and a dwarf plant with white flowers (ttrr). All the plants in F₁​ generation will be tall and will produce red flowers.

When plants of F_1​ generation are allowed to self-pollinated, phenotype of plants in F₂​ generation can be shown by following Punnett Square.

In this case, the standard dihybrid ratio 9 : 3 : 3 : 1 which can be shown as follows:

Tall plant red flower = 9

Tall plant white flower = 3

Dwarf plant red flower = 3

Dwarf plant white flower = 1

The standard dihybrid ratio works only when the genes for contrasting characters are on different chromosomes. If characters are on the same chromosome, they may interact with each other. In that situation, the dihybrid ratio would show variation from the standard hybrid ratio.