In sweet pea plants, purple flower color is dominant over red flower color and long pollen grain shape is dominant over round pollen grain shape. Two sweet pea plants that we heterozygous for both flower color and pollen grain shape are crossed with one another. A geneticistis surprised to observe that there are fewer round purple offspring and long red offspring than were predicted by the 9:3:3:1 expected phenotypie ratio Which of the following statements provides the most reasonable prediction to account for the deviation from the expected results? A) in sweet pea plants, the gene for flower color and the gene for pollen grain shape are genetically linked
B) In sweet pea plants the genes for flower color and for pollen grain shape both exhibit codominance
C) Several mutations occurred spontaneously producing a deviation from the expected phenotypic ratio of the offspring
D) The genes for flower color and pollen grain shape are inherited independently because of the law of independent assortment

Medel was the Father of Genetics, who gave the laws on independent assortment, dominance, and segregation of the genes.

However, there are some exception that violates these laws, such as genetic linkage is one of the exceptions that violates the law of independent assortment.

The correct answer is:

Option A. in sweet pea plants, the gene for flower color and the gene for pollen grain shape are genetically linked

In the given data, the results can be interpreted as:

Therefore, Option A is correct.

To know more about genetic linkages, refer to the following link:

link

The correct answer is - option A) in sweet pea plants, the gene for flower color and the gene for pollen grain shape are genetically linked.

Explanation:

In this given case the result of phenotypes are not as expected and does not follow the law of independent assortment presented by Mendel. It appears to be the case of genetic linkage as it is not following the mendelian law by producing fewer round purple offspring and long red offspring which do not satisfy the expected mendelian ratio of 9:3:3:1. Mutation can lead to failure in producing proteins but could not affect the phenotypic ratio of the plant.

Thus, the correct answer is - option A.