Question
What is the law of independent assortment? Briefly describe the event of a dihybrid cross in guinea pig with a checkerboard.
Answer
Independent assortment : The law of independent assortment states that the inheritance of one pair of contrasting characters (alleles) is independent of the inheritance of another pair of contrasting characters (alleles).
Experiments of Dihybrid Cross In Guineapig: One homozygous female black Guineapig with rough hair (BBRR) was crossed with a male homozygous white Guineapig with smooth hair (bbrr). Black colour (B) is dominant over white (b) and rough hair (R) is dominant over smooth hair (r). All the offspring of the F1 generation were black and rough (BbRr). When these F1 male and female hybrids intercrossed (BbRr x BbRr) four types were obtained in F2 generation. The following four types of Guineapig were produced in the F2 generation. (i) 9/16 black and rough, (ii) 3/16 black and smooth, (iii) 3/16 white and rough, (iv) 1/16 white and smooth, their ratio was 9 : 3 : 3 : 1.
