Are the principle of segregation and independent assortment, both laws or theories?

looney_tunes

The principle of segregation "proposes the separation of paired factors during gamete formation, with each gamete receiving one or the other factor, usually not both. Organisms carry two alleles for every trait. These traits separate during the formation of gametes." http://www.estrellamountain.edu/faculty/farabee/BIOBK/BioBookgenintro.html#Principle%20of%20segregation "Mendel's law of independent assortment states that allele pairs separate independently during the formation of gametes. This means that traits are transmitted to offspring independently of one another." http://biology.about.com/bldefmenlawia.htm Mendel was fundamentally hypothesizing, as he had no mechanism available to explain how this happened, just that it would explain the observations he had made. With current molecular biology understandings, most would consider these laws, although some might argue that they need a more mathematical formulation to be considered laws rather than theories. http://wilstar.com/theories.htm Mar 05 10, 10:01 PM