Chapter 4, Problem 9EQ

Summer squash exist in long, spherical, or disk shapes. When a true-breeding long-shaped strain was crossed to a true-breeding disk-shaped strain, all of the ${\text{F}}_{\text{1}}$ offspring were disk-shaped. When the ${\text{F}}_{\text{1}}$ offspring were allowed to self-fertilize, the F2 generation consisted of a ratio of 9 disk-shaped to 6 round-shaped to 1 long-shaped. Assuming the shape of summer squash is governed by two different genes, with each gene existing in two alleles, propose a mechanism to account for this 9:6:1 ratio.