Dihybrid Crosses

Adapted from:
A Graham
Carmel RC Technology College
Darlington

What are dihybrid crosses?

Dihybrid crosses are those
where we consider the
inheritance of two
characteristics at the same time.
How is this different from a
monohybrid cross?

Famous Example of Dihybrid

Inheritance: Mendels Peas
Mendel had observed that the seeds of his
pea plants varied in several waysamongst them, whether the peas were
round or wrinkled AND whether they
were green or yellow.

There are four possible combinations of

the two characteristics. Peas can be:
1. round and yellow
2. round and green
3. wrinkled and yellow
4. wrinkled and green

Mendel first did monohybrid crosses

on both characteristics, then he
decided to look at how these traits were
inherited together.

 From his monohybrid trials, Mendel had

discovered that the allele for yellow colour
(Y) was dominant to that for green (y).
He had also found that the allele for
round peas (R) was dominant to the
allele for wrinkled peas (r).
Starting with individuals that were
homozygous, either for both dominant
characteristics or both recessive
characteristics, he set off breeding
again

Phenotype

Round, yellow

Genotype

RRYY

Gametes

all

F1

rryy

RY
all

Wrinkled, green

all

ry

RrYy

All of the F1 generation would be heterozygous for

both characteristics, meaning that they would all be
round and yellow. As with monohybrid crosses, he
then crossed two of the F1 generation together

Crossing members of the F1 Generation

Phenotype

Round, yellow

Genotype

RrYy

Gametes

RY, Ry, rY, ry

F2

Round, yellow

RrYy
RY, Ry, rY, ry

We really need a punnet square for this

RY

Ry

rY

ry

RY

RRYY

RRYy

RrYY

RrYy

Ry

RRYy

RRyy

RrYy

Rryy

rY

RrYY

RrYy

rrYY

rrYy

ry

RrYy

Rryy

rrYy

rryy

F2 Generation Phenotype ratios

9 : 3 : 3 : 1
Round

Round Wrinkled Wrinkled

Yellow

Green Yellow

Green

This is the typical ratio

expected in a dihybrid cross.