Pleiotropy

Sometimes a single gene pair will control more than one trait. For example barley that has good malting characteristics for brewing also tends to sprout prior to harvest. High sucrose lines of soybean have a sweeter flavor in soymilk and cause less gas production in the consumer compared to lines with normal sucrose levels. Perhaps a seed color gene in corn that controls also controls whether the kernel is plump or shrunken. White kernels would always be shrunken, red would always be plump. When genes control more than one trait, these traits will always be inherited together. This explanation is consistent with what Dr. Osterman observed on the seeds of the testcross ear.