A farmer cultivates a unique species of tomato plants. The two traits selected for breeding were: Colour of the fruits and height of the plants. The farmer initially crosses a homozygous tall plant bearing red fruits (TTRR) with a dwarf plant bearing yellow fruits (ttrr) and the genotype of all the offsprings of the F₁ generation was TtRr. Next, he crosses two F₁ generation plants (TtRr).

(a) Explain the phenotype of the offsprings of the F₁ generation obtained from the initial cross.

(b) Mention the phenotypic ratio of the F₂ generation offsprings.

(c) State Mendel's Law of Independent Assortment.

(a) All F₁ plants are tall with red fruits, because the alleles for tallness (T) and red fruit colour (R) are dominant over dwarfness (t) and yellow colour (r).

(b) 9 : 3 : 3 : 1

(c) Mendel's Law of Independent Assortment states that when there are two pairs of characters, the distribution of the alleles of one character into the gametes is independent of the distribution of the alleles of the other character.