Biology as Poetry: Genetics

Bacteriophage Ecology Group

Segregation of Alleles

The Mendelian genetic consequence of genetic recombination.

In particular, two loci that are found on different chromosomes or, alternatively, that are sufficiently far apart on the same chromosome will independently assort during meiosis, that is, alleles will segregate. This has the effect of untying the inheritance of the alleles associated with two or more loci such that they behave independently and is known otherwise as Mendel's Law of Segregation.

The independent inheritance of alleles is a great simplifying assumption in Mendelian genetics when considering multiple loci during crosses such as a dihybrid cross. It means basically that each locus can be considered in isolation, without all of the complications that would occur were the inheritance of one specific allele to impact the likelihood of inheritance of an allele found at a different locus. The alternative is genetic linkage, that is, where the inheritance of alleles found at different loci cannot be considered independently.

For more on this topic, see Wikipedia  and Google.  Contact web master.  Return to home.