All three contribute to giving rise to genetic variation. Independent assortment allows for the chromosomes to assort in millions of random of combinations during fertilization. Crossing over between chromosomes produces recombinant chromosomes, or the combination of chromosomal DNA from two parents into one chromosome. Random fertilization allows aids with variation because it means any sperm can fertilize any egg. It is sometimes easy to overlook, but humans do not mate randomly. Lots of energy is put into choosing an optimal mate with whom to reproduce. 

Since the offspring receives one allele from each parent, crossing a purebred dominant organism with a purebred recessive organism (PPQQ x ppqq) will always result in a hybridized offspring (PpQq). Thus, Flower 1's genotype is PpQq. Also remember that a recessive phenotype always indicates double recessive alleles for that trait. And so, crossing Flower 1 with a white, short-stemmed flower will result in the cross PpQq x ppqq. The next step is to draw a 4x4 Punnett square, as seen in the diagram. The desired genotype for this question is ppqq (recessive phenotype), and from the Punnett square you will be able to see that 4/16 of the squares will carry this specific genotype.

The phenotypic ratio is the ratio of one phenotype to another (phenotype is the trait expressed, in this case color, while genotype is the allele combination (BB, bb, Bb, or bB) that produces that phenotype. The capital letters BB signify that the blue allele (B) is dominant to the white allele (b). As such, the only genotype that will produce white plants is bb. All other combinations (BB, Bb, bB) will produce a blue plant. If you cross a homozygous (both dominant or both recessive) dominant plant with a homozygous recessive plant, the dominant allele will be present in all of the offspring, as every possible allele the blue plant could contribute will be dominant to every possible allele the white plant could contribute, making all of the offspring blue. 

The correct answer is "X-linked." Mammalian females have two X chromosomes, with recessive alleles often not apparent unless there are two copies. Mammalian males have only one X chromosome, so any recessive alleles on it will be expressed.

The child is blood type AB, meaning that the child has both the "A" antigen and the "B" antigen on his or her red blood cells. The child is able to express the products of both genes simultaneously. The A antigen was inherited from mom, and the B antigen was inherited from dad. The "A" and "B" alleles are codominant because they can both be expressed in the same person at the same time if the person inherits both alleles, as is the case in this example.

The easiest way to solve this problem is to draw a punnet square. The genotypes of the parents are "AO" and "AB". The potential genotypes of their children are "AA", "AO", "BA", and "BO". Only genotype "BO" will produce type B blood. "BO" is one out of four results of this punnet square, so the probability of this outcome is .

Dominant alleles are referred to with capital letters, so let's call the dominant blue-petal allele B. Recessive alleles are referred to using lower case letters, so we will call the recessive white-petal allele b.

A heterozygous organism has one dominant and one recessive allele, so the heterozygous flower has one B allele and one b allele. Its genotype is Bb. Because B is dominant to b, its phenotype (the trait produced by its genotype) is blue petals.

A homozygous organism has two of the same allele. The homozygous flower will either have two BB alleles or two bb alleles. The question states that the flower with white petals is homozygous recessive, so its genotype is bb and its phenotype is white petals. The only genotype that produces a white phenotype is bb, because you need two recessive alleles in order to express the recessive trait.

When you cross the two flowers, each parent donates one of its two alleles for petal color to the offspring. Accounting for every possible combination of alleles from each parent, there are four possible outcomes from a cross between Bb and bb: Bb, Bb, bb, and bb. (It may also help to draw a punnet square to visualize the four possible combinations). As you can see, these outcomes lead to two possible genotypes: Bb and bb.  The Bb genotype produces flowers with blue petals, and the bb genotype leads to flowers with white petals. Because two of the four possible outcomes are genotype bb, two of the four possible outcomes are for flowers with white petals. Two out of four is equal to , so  is the correct answer.

The correct answer is "rr". In order to express the recessive phenotype (white flowers), the organism must have only the recessive allele. When the question stem says that the organism is "diploid," it means that each flower has two copies of each chromosome. This means that the flower must have two alleles, so there must be two letters, not just one, in the correct answer.

A red flower must have the "R" allele, which conveys the red phenotype. Since this red allele is dominant, the flower will be red as long as one copy of this allele is present. Thus, the genotypes "Rr" and "RR" will both produce red flowers. If no red allele is present ("rr"), the flower will be white.

A gamete will have n=23 chromosomes while a somatic cell is going to have a diploid number of cells, or 2n=46. This is the case because somatic cells are going to receive a copy of chromosomes from each parent, so 23 from the mother and 23 form the father to give 46 total chromosomes. If you are ever given the haploid number and asked for the diploid number, then you can simply double the haploid number.