Throught the reflection, make sure you have a copy of the Student Guide and your data table.

In your experiement, you tested this hypothesis:

Hypothesis: If a mouse inherits a particular form of one trait, then the inheritance of the other trait will not be affected because alleles assort independently.

white mouseA white mouse with red eyes and a black mouse with black eyes.
The hypothesis would not have been supported by the data if

traits independently assorted in approximately a 9:3:3:1 ratio.

the traits for white fur and red eyes were always inherited together.

all the F1 offspring had the same phenotype.

If the traits for white fur and red eyes were always inherited together then the hypothesis would not have been supported by the data.

Explanation:

The white fur and red eyed mouse had genotype AA RR or AaRr

The black fur mouse and black eye mouse had genotype aarr

The F1 offspring will have all offspring with same phenotype as shown in the Punett square.

   AR     AR

ar AaRr  AaRr

ar AaRr  AaRr

all the siblings are of same phenotype

Punnet square to show that genes assort independently.

    Ar     AR

ar Aarr  AaRr        2 white fur and black eye: 2 white fur red eye

ar Aarr  AaRr

The phenotype pattern of this punnet square shows that white fur and red eyes are not always inherited.

The law of independent assortment is shown from the cross that is  by selfing.

         AR        Ar          aR       ar

AR  AARR  AARr    AaAR     AaRr

Ar   AARr   AArr     AaRr       Aarr

aR   AaRR  aArR     aaRR     aaRr

ar     AaRr   Aarr     aaRr      aarr

phenotype ratio of 9:3:3:1

9 WHITE FUR RED EYE

3 WHITE FUR BLACK EYE

3 BLACK FUR RED EYE.

1 BLACK FUR BLACK EYE

By cross checking, the options given it is concluded that the traits for white fur and red eyes are not always inherited together, the two traits are governed by different genes and are independently exhibited in the individual as stated in law of independent Assortment.