Mendel’s Third Law – The Law of Dominance

Also known as simple dominance, Mendel’s third law means that for the two
alleles of a gene, the dominant allele is always expressed because it masks
the recessive allele. Recessive traits are only seen when both alleles are
recessive. Mendel’s monohybrid cross experiments show this. In Figure 1, the
peas have green pods (R) even if they have one allele for yellow pods (r); i.e.,
RrYy, RrYY.

To have yellow pods, the peas must be homozygous recessive (rr) for the
trait. The same is true for the dominant trait of rough pods (Y) and recessive
smooth pods (y). The pods are only smooth if they are homozygous recessive
(yy).