Question

What is the reason for the purity of gametes?
A. Dominance
B. Segregation
C. Independent assortment
D. Blending

Answer 1

Hint: Sexual reproduction involves the formation of gametes by both parents. The fusion of gametes is called fertilisation. ​ Gametes are haploid cells, and each cell carries only one copy of each chromosome.

Complete Answer:
- Gametes are an organism's reproductive cells. They are also referred to as sex cells. Female gametes are called ova or egg cells, and male gametes are called sperm.
- Mendel put forward laws of inheritance that are the basis of the genetic studies of inheritance and variations. According to Mendel's second law of inheritance or the law of segregation, members of an allelic pair in hybrid remain together without mixing and segregate during gamete formation. Thus, gametes receive only one of the two factors and are pure for a given trait. Hence this law is also known as the Law of Purity of Gametes.
- Dominance is a phenomenon in which when two contrasting factors for a character are found together, one dominates over the other. Law of dominance is the first law among the laws of inheritance put forward by Mendel.
- Law of independent assortment is based on the studies of dihybrid crosses. It states that when two pairs of traits are combined in a hybrid, segregation of one pair of characters is independent of the other pair of characters.
- Independent assortment is different from the law of segregation as it talks about two different characters. Segregation is about the distribution of two contrasting traits of a single character without blending during gamete formation.

Hence the correct answer is option B.

Note: Deviations from the mendelian principles during the inheritance of characters are seen. They are known as non-mendelian patterns of inheritance. Codominance, incomplete dominance, multiple allelism, etc are examples for these.