CBSE Class 10 Answered
Law of segregation: The characteristics or traits of an organism are determined by internal “factors” which occur in pairs. Only one of a pair of such factors can be present in a single gamete. During gamete formation, the genes of a particular character separate and enter different gametes. This is the law of segregation. This law is also called the law of purity of gametes.
Example: During gamete formation, the paired factors (Tt) present in the F1 plant segregate independently and enter different gametes. So, each gamete receives either T or t from the paired factors Tt, which are responsible for the expression of a single character.
Law of independent assortment: In the inheritance of more than one pair of traits in a cross simultaneously, the factors responsible for each pair of traits are distributed independently to the gametes. The law of independent assortment is based on the dihybrid experiment. According to this law, the genes for each pair of characters separate independently from those of the other characters during gamete formation.
Example: Consider a plant with yellow round seeds being crossed with another pea plant with green wrinkled seeds. During gamete formation of a dihybrid cross, the factors for yellow colour assort independently of the factors for round shape.