What is the difference between an independent variable and a dependent variable? How are these different from constants?

In sweet pea, gene c is responsible for color production and gene p is responsible for the purple color pigment. both of them are located on two different loci on different chromosomes. the flowers will be purple only when the plant has the genotypes as c_p_. no color will be produced with genotypes: ccpp, ccpp, ccpp, ccpp. thus, gene c controls the expression of gene p. what pattern of inheritance is exhibited here? a. pleiotropy b. epistasis c. multiple alleles