In the sweet pea crossing experiment by Bateson and Punnet, the F2 generation had many more offspring with the phenotypes of pur
ple flowers P, long pollen L and red flowers p, round pollen l than expected from independent assortment. (The parental cross was between PPLL x ppll plants.) The F2 generation can be explained because
The F2 generation can be explained because the alleles for flower colour and pollen shape are linked.
Explanation:
<em>When two alleles are linked on the same chromosome, there is a high tendency for the alleles to be inherited together. Consequently, the frequency of the alleles recombining in subsequent generations is low.</em>
This is what Bateson and Punnet observed. There exist a linkage between P and L alleles and also p and l alleles, thereby increasing their frequencies of occurring together and decreasing the frequency of their recombination.
Thus, the F2 generation observed by Bateson and Punnet is due to linkage of alleles.
