Which genotype would yield the greatest diversity when crossed with a homozygous recessive?

The genotype that would yield the greatest diversity when crossed with a homozygous recessive individual is HhTt. This conclusion arises from analyzing the potential combinations of alleles that can be produced from a dihybrid cross.

When a genotype like HhTt is crossed with a homozygous recessive individual (for both traits, let's say hhtt), four combinations of alleles can be produced in the offspring: HT, Ht, hT, and ht. Each of these combinations represents a unique phenotype based on the presence of dominant or recessive traits, resulting in a wide variety of possible offspring traits.

In contrast, the other genotypes present fewer combinations. For instance, the genotype HhHH contains an excess of dominant alleles that would lead to a limited range of offspring characteristics when crossed with a homozygous recessive. Similarly, HHTt provides fewer variations due to the presence of homozygous dominant alleles. The genotype hhTt also yields limited diversity since all offspring will inherit the recessive h allele.

Therefore, HhTt is the optimal genotype for producing a wide array of diverse offspring when crossed with a homozygous recessive genotype, maximizing the variety of possible traits due to independent