Question

Using Mendel’s monohybrid cross as an example, trace his reasoning to arrive at the law of segregation.

Answer 1

Using Mendel’s monohybrid cross, he crossed pure breeding red (RR) and white (rr) flowered pea plants. The F₁ generation had all red flowers (Rr), showing dominance. On self-pollination, F₂ generation showed a 3:1 ratio of red to white flowers. Mendel reasoned that the two alleles segregate during gamete formation, each gamete receiving only one allele. This led to the law of segregation, stating alleles separate completely and remain discrete during inheritance, disproving blending inheritance.