Dihybrid Inheritance

Dihybrid inheritance refers to the simultaneous inheritance of two characters

Mendels experiment

Mendel investigated the inheritance of seed shape (round v wrinkled) and seed colour (green v yellow) at the same time. From his monohybrid crosses he knew that round seeds were dominant to wrinkled seeds and yellow seeds were dominant to green seeds. He chose to cross plants that were pure breeding for both dominant features (round and yellow seeds) with plants that were pure breeding for both recessive features (wrinkled and green seeds)

Results
Parents plants with round x plants with wrinkled and yellow seeds and green seeds F1 offspring 100% plants with round and yellow seeds F1 intercross plants with round x plants with round and yellow seeds and yellow seeds F2 offspring Total 556 seeds collected from F2 plants Ratio 315 108 101 32

9 3 3 1

round and yellow seeds round and green seeds wrinkled and yellow seeds wrinkled and green seeds

However, the ratio of dominant to recessive features is still 3:1

Explanation of Mendels results

Let the allele for round seeds be R and the allele for wrinkled seeds be r Let the allele for yellow seeds be Y and the allele for green seeds be y
Phenotype Genotype round x wrinkled yellow seeds green seeds RR YY rryy
RY RY

Parents

Gametes F1 offspring

ry

ry

gametes gametes RY RY ry RrYy RrYy ry RrYy RrYy

F1 intercross Parents phenotype genotype Gametes round, yellow seeds x Rr Yy RY Ry rY ry round, yellow seeds Rr Yy RY Ry rY ry

What are the genotypes and phenotypes of the F2 offspring and in what ratio?

F2 offspring

gametes RY Ry rY ry
genotypes

RY RRYY RRYy RrYY RrYy

Ry RRYy RRyy RrYy Rryy

gametes rY RrYY RrYy rrYY rrYy

ry RrYy Rryy rrYy rryy

expected observed

phenotypes
yellow, round

RRYY (1) RrYy (4) RRyy (1) Rryy (2) rrYY (1) rryy (1) rrYy (2)

RRYy (2) RrYY (2) yellow, round round, green wrinkled, yellow wrinkled, green

9 3 3 1

315 108 101 32

Allowing for statistical error, Mendels results were a reasonable approximation to the expected 9:3:3:1 ratio Each of a member of an allelic pair may combine randomly with either of another pair A test cross can be performed to check the possible genotypes of a plant producing round, yellow seeds (RRYY, RrYY, RrYy, RRYy) by crossing the plants with a homozygous recessive plant with wrinkled green seeds genotype rryy What phenotypes and genotypes would the offspring possess from the 4 crosses, and in what ratios?