Question

The phenotypic ratio for colour (red is dominant over white) and height (long-stemmed is dominant over short-stemmed) in rose plants is 9:3:3:1. Are these two genes found on the same chromosome? Explain your answer

Answer 1

Yes, These two genes can be present on the same chromosome. But these physical closeness can actually change the nature of the results, where the concept of linkage comes into play, the allele of one gene is very close to an allele of another gene in the same DNA strand, that it is very unlikely for the two allele to separate independently (in other words, they are inherited as one unit). This has to do with 2 genes. This concept is essentially independent assortment, but deals with unit of multiple alleles, rather than just an allele.

Mendel's law of independent assortment states that the alleles of two (or more) different genes get sorted into gametes independently of one another. In other words, the allele a gamete receives for one gene does not influence the allele received for another gene.

This image can let us know how the law of independent assortment leads to a 9:3:3:1ratio. But what was the alternative possibility? That is, what would happen if two genes didn't follow independent assortment?
In the extreme case, the genes for seed color and seed shape might have always been inherited as a pair. That is, the yellow and round alleles might always have stayed together, and so might the green and wrinkled alleles.
To see how this could work, imagine that the color and shape genes are physically stuck together and cannot be separated, as represented by the boxes around the alleles in the diagram below. For instance, this could happen if the two genes were located very, very close together on a chromosome

Rather than giving a color allele and, separately, giving a shape allele to each gamete, the dihybrid plant would simply give one “combo unit” to each gamete: a YR allele pair or a yr allele pair.
We can use a Punnett square to predict the results of self-fertilization in this case, as shown above. If the seed color and seed shape genes were in fact always inherited as a unit, or completely linked, a dihybrid cross should produce just two types of offspring, yellow/round and green/wrinkled, in a 3:1. Mendel's actual results were quite different from this, telling him that the genes assorted independently.

To be exact, the two copies of a gene carried by an organism (such as a Y and a y allele) are located at the same spot on the two chromosomes of a homologous pair. Homologous chromosomes are similar but non-identical, and an organism gets one member of the pair from each of its two parents.
The physical basis for the law of independent assortment lies in meiosis I of gamete formation, when homologous pairs line up in random orientations at the middle of the cell as they prepare to separate. We can get gametes with different combos of "mom" and "dad" homologues (and thus, the alleles on those homologues) because the orientation of each pair is random.