Question

Why are the principles of segregation and independent assortment key to understanding inheritance? How do these principles differ from the theory of blending inheritance?

Answer 1

in the mendel's principle of segregation Two copies of each chromosome get segregated and transferred into the gamtets.

segregation of homeo logos chromosomes occurs at the time of meiosis. generally diploid cell becomes haploid at the time of gamete formation and in haploid cell chromosomes are present in exactly half of the numbers ( each chromosome have single copy in haploid cell).

Independent assortment means homologous chromosome are free to form a set of chromosomes. There is no boundation for chromosomes for the pairing with onother homologous chromosome.

in the segregation 1 chromosome can separate with another homeo logos chromosome and can assort independently.

when two alleles are present for a single character then they can be dominant or recessive according to mendel's law of inheritance.

for example at the time of gamete formation haploid cells are formed and the these haploid cell can fuse with another haploid cell to form a diploid zygote. during gamete formation we can see segregation of alleles and during fertilization and zygote formation we can see independent assortment.

but in blending inheritance two alleles fuse together and form New phenotype which is mix up of both alleles.