Mendel’s work led to two important laws of genetics: the law of segregation and the law of independent assortment.
The law of segregation states that when the parent plant forms sex cells during the process of meiosis, the parent’s gene pairs segregate or separate. In other words, one gene from each pair of traits goes to each sex cell.
For example, a plant is heterozygous for seed color. The plant would have a phenotype of yellow seeds and a genotype of Yy.
When the gametes, sex cells, are formed during meiosis, the gene pairs will separate into different sex cells.
The law of independent assortment states that each gene pair for a trait is inherited independently of the gene pairs for all other traits.
For example, a plant is heterozygous for seed color and heterozygous for seed shape. The phenotype would be yellow and round. The genotype would be YyRr.
When the sex cells form, the genes for seed shape separate independently from the genes for seed color.