Apoorva Arora
Last Activity: 10 Years ago
The Law of Segregation states that every individual contains a pair of alleles for each particular trait which segregate or separate during cell division(assuming diploidy) for any particular trait and that each parent passes a randomly selected copy (allele) to its offspring. The offspring then receives its own pair of alleles of the gene for that trait by inheriting sets ofhomologous chromosomesfrom the parent organisms. Interactions between alleles at a single locus are termed dominance and these influence how the offspring expresses that trait (e.g. the color and height of a plant, or the color of an animal's fur). Book definition: The law of segregation states that the two alleles for a heritable character segregate (separate from each other) during gamete formation and end up in different gametes.
More precisely, the law states that when any individual producesgametes, the copies of ageneseparate so that each gamete receives only one copy (allele). A gamete will receive one allele or the other. The direct proof of this was later found following the observation of meiosisby two independent scientists, the German botanistOscar Hertwigin 1876, and the Belgian zoologistEdouard Van Benedenin 1883. Paternal and maternal chromosomes get separated in meiosis and the alleles with the traits of a character are segregated into two different gametes. Each parent contributes a single gamete, and thus a single, randomly successful allele copy to their offspring and fertilization. and hence option 3.
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Apoorva Arora
IIT Roorkee
askIITians Faculty