Test Cross vs Hybrid Cross

NEWTON's HOME PAGE

Test Cross vs Hybrid Cross

Name: Dustin
Status:  student
Age: 16
Location: N/A
Country: N/A
Date: 4/12/2004

Question:

What is the difference between test cross and dihybrid cross?

Replies:

When you look at someone with a dominant trait, you can't tell whether they are homozygous or heterozygous. For instance, if someone has brown eyes, they could be BB or Bb. Remember that Mendel always started his crosses with a purebred (homozygous) P generation. How did he know his dominant parent was homozygous? He developed what is known as a test cross. He took a recessive (in our case blue eyes, or bb) and mated it with a pea plant showing the dominant trait. If in the F1 generation the offspring were all dominant, then the dominant parent was probably BB. If there were any recessives in the F1, then the dominant parent had to be Bb. A dihybrid cross is following the inheritance of two traits simultaneously. For example, Mendel wanted to know what the probability was that peas could be both yellow and smooth or green and wrinkled. So those genotypes would be written YYSS and yyss.

Van Hoeck

Click here to return to the General Topics Archives

NEWTON is an electronic community for Science, Math, and Computer Science K-12 Educators, sponsored and operated by Argonne National Laboratory's Educational Programs, Andrew Skipor, Ph.D., Head of Educational Programs.

For assistance with NEWTON contact a System Operator (help@newton.dep.anl.gov), or at Argonne's Educational Programs

NEWTON AND ASK A SCIENTIST
Educational Programs
Building 360
9700 S. Cass Ave.
Argonne, Illinois
60439-4845, USA

Update: June 2012