pleiotropy affects multiple phenotypic characters although the relationship between linkage and pleiotropy is not clear
Linkage and Pleiotropy refer to carrying over the pieces of information together. Though, the phenotypic state may change due to recombination among the genes in the case of linkage where two or more than two genes are located physically on the same chromosome. In the case of pleiotropy, the situation at the molecular level is different from those of linkage. We know that multiple traits affected by one factor is generally referred to as pleiotropy. In fact, there are very few examples quoted in a textbook on pleiotropic gene action. One very prominent example that I consider as an example of pleiotropic gene action is in dwarf varieties of wheat and rice. In fact, in both cases, the height of the tall and traditional varieties was reduced due to the deployment of height reducing gene (rht) from dwarf varieties Norin 10 and De Geo Woo Gen. Apart from the height of the plant, many other traits namely lodging tolerance, higher harvest index, responsive to fertilizer, flowering and maturity duration, and so many other traits were also modified drastically. Thus, height () is one of the examples of the pleiotropy gene and reduced height leads to changes in the expression of so many traits.
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