Suppose a group of researchers analyzed a new species of flowering plant. In this species, flower color is determined by two genes. They crossed a truebreeding red-flowered stock with a truebreeding white-flowered stock. They then crossed the F_1 offspring together and analyzed the next generation. Upon examining the flower color, they found that the F_2 generation contained 178 purple, 60 red, and 80 white flowers. What genetic term best describes the inheritance pattern of flower color for this species?a. genes in one pathwayb. no gene interactionc. dominant epistasisd. recessive epistasis

Recessive epistasis is a genetic phenomenon where the recessive gene is able to repress the expression of the dominant gene, presenting a greater number of individuals with the recessive genotype, in the F2 generation, than the number of individuals of the dominant genotype.

An example of this can be seen in the question above, where the F2 generation contained 178 purple, 60 red and 80 white flowers. The white color represents the recessive allele, while the red color presents the dominant allele. The recessive allele was expressed in greater quantity indicating the occurrence of recessive epistasis.