Punnett square

Punnett Square

A Punnett square is a graphical representation used by geneticists to calculate the probability of an offspring having a particular genotype. The square is named after Reginald Punnett, who devised the approach. The Punnett square is a fundamental tool in genetic analysis.

History

The Punnett square is named after its creator, British geneticist Reginald Punnett. Punnett, along with William Bateson, were among the first to establish Mendelian inheritance in animals.

Description

A Punnett square is a simple graphical way of discovering all of the potential combinations of genotypes that can occur in children, given the mother's and father's genotypes. The Punnett square is a tabular summary of possible combinations of maternal alleles with paternal alleles. These tables give the correct probabilities for the genotype outcomes of independent crosses where the probability of inheriting copies of each parental allele is independent.

Use in genetics

In genetics, the Punnett square is fundamental in predicting the genotype of offspring. It is used to determine the probability of an offspring having a particular genotype, given the genotypes of its parents. This is particularly useful in predicting the inheritance of genetic disorders.

See also

• Genetics
• Genotype
• Phenotype
• Allele
• Mendelian inheritance
• Reginald Punnett

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