Final answer:
Epistasis is the inheritance pattern where one gene interferes with another's expression, adding complexity to Mendelian inheritance. It exists alongside other non-Mendelian patterns like incomplete dominance and codominance, which explain traits like wavy hair in humans.
Step-by-step explanation:
The inheritance pattern where one gene interferes with the expression of another gene is known as epistasis. While Mendelian genetics lays the foundation for understanding inheritance, it does not fully account for the variety of ways in which genes can affect the phenotype of an organism. Beyond the classic dominant-recessive interactions described by Mendel, allele pairs can result in different inheritance patterns, such as incomplete dominance—where the heterozygote displays an intermediate phenotype—and codominance—where both alleles are equally expressed in the phenotype. These patterns, along with others like polygenic inheritance and sex-linked inheritance, add complexity to our understanding of heredity. Notably, incomplete dominance is observed in cases like wavy hair in humans, where the allele for curly hair shows incomplete dominance over the allele for straight hair.