What are Mendel’s laws of inheritance? Explain the Law of Segregation with an example. (NCERT Class 10, Heredity – Important)

Answer: Mendel proposed three laws: (1) Law of Dominance, (2) Law of Segregation, (3) Law of Independent Assortment. Law of Segregation states that allele pairs separate during gamete formation so each gamete carries only one allele. Example: In pea plants, tall (T) is dominant over dwarf (t). Cross TT × tt → all F₁ are Tt (tall). Selfing F₁: Tt × Tt gives F₂ genotype ratio 1 TT : 2 Tt : 1 tt and phenotype ratio 3 tall : 1 dwarf, showing alleles segregate into gametes.