Question

What was Gregor Mendel's experiment with pea plants?

Answer 1

Mendel studied inheritance with his pea plants.

Explanation:

P GENERATION

Mendel chose pea plants as his specimen to study, as they exhibit distinctive traits that could be easily observed from one generation to the next (e.g. colour, height). Firstly, he ensured that each type bred true (e.g. only tall plants yield tall plants).

Once he had these purebred seeds, he mated the two opposing traits for each characteristic. Since pea plants self-pollinate, Mendel had to emasculate the flowers and transfer pollen manually.

F1 GENERATION

In crossing the two opposing traits, the resulting offspring was heterozygous. (For example, `"TT" xx "tt" = "Tt"`). These hybrids were then self-pollinated.

F2 GENERATION

In this case, a `1:2:1` ratio was observed genotypically

e.g. `" " 1/4 "TT " : " "2/4 "Tt " : " " 1/4 "tt"`

Phenotypically, it was `75%` of one trait `: 25%` of the other trait

e.g. `" "75% "tall " : " "25% "short"`