Corn serves as a practical example of Mendel's law of independent assortment by demonstrating how different traits, such as kernel color and kernel shape, are inherited independently of each other. Each kernel on an ear of corn represents an individual offspring, allowing observation of many progeny from a single plant

. For example, one gene may control kernel color (purple is dominant, yellow is recessive), while another gene controls kernel shape (such as round or wrinkled). According to Mendel's law of independent assortment, the alleles for kernel color segregate independently from the alleles for kernel shape during gamete formation. This means the inheritance of kernel color does not influence the inheritance of kernel shape

. When corn plants heterozygous for both traits are crossed, the offspring kernels show a variety of combinations of these traits in predictable ratios, reflecting independent assortment. This produces phenotypic ratios such as 9:3:3:1 for two traits, demonstrating that the genes assort independently into gametes

. Thus, by analyzing kernel color and shape on a single ear of corn, students and researchers can observe Mendel's law of independent assortment in action, as the traits segregate and recombine independently in the progeny kernels