A homozygous strain of corn that produces yellow kernels is crossed with another homozygous strain that produces purple kernels. When the F1 are interbred, 290 of the F2 are yellow and 70 are purple.
a. If kernel color is controlled by a single gene pair with yellow dominant to purple, what would be the expected ratio of yellow to purple in the F2?
b. Do the observed data differ significantly from the expected in (a)? Explain your answer (use a chi square test).
c. Provide an alternative explanation for the inheritance of kernel color and evaluate it by comparing the observed data to that expected from your alternative hypothesis.