How many laws did Mendel formulate as described in the material?

• A. Three
• B. Two
• C. Four
• D. Five

Answer: (A)

Three fundamental rules describe how traits pass from parents to offspring. The law of segregation says alleles for a trait separate into gametes so each gamete carries only one allele from each gene. The law of dominance explains why the dominant allele masks the recessive one in heterozygotes. The law of independent assortment states that alleles of different genes assort independently during gamete formation, so they combine in offspring in new ways. Mendel’s monohybrid and dihybrid crosses illustrate these patterns with the classic 3:1 and 9:3:3:1 phenotypic ratios. So the material describes three laws.