So far we have considered one trait at a time: height (tall or short), seed shape (round or wrinkled), pod color (green or yellow) at a time.

Mendel noticed during all his work that the height of the plant and the shape of the seeds and the color of the pods had no impact on one another. In other words, being tall didn't automatically mean the plants had to have green pods, nor did green pods have to be filled only with wrinkled seeds. Different traits seem to be inherited INDEPENDENTLY.

In this law the emphasis on the word "different" is considerably important. Nine times out of ten, in a question involving two different traits, your answer will be "independent assortment".

Independent assortment helps account for the many genetic variations observed in plants animals, and other organisms – even when they have the same parents.

Punnet squares that illustrates this law involve what's known as a "dihybrid cross", meaning that the parents are hybrid for two different traits.

In Mendel's third law of inheritance : Independent assortment

it is important to consider :

Different traits seem to be inherited INDEPENDENTLY.
Alleles for different traits are distributed to sex cells (& offspring) independently of one another.

Punnet squares that illustrates this law involve what's known as a "dihybrid cross", meaning that the parents are hybrid for two different traits.

	Created by Alejandra Gomez about 4 years ago

Biology 10th Slide Set on Mendelian genetics ( Mendel's pea plants experiments), created by Alejandra Gomez on 13/04/2020.