Question

Mendel spent years crossing pure bred pea plants together to observe their phenotypes. One consistent pattern he observed is that every time a pure breed purple flower was crossed with a pure breed white flower, all offspring were purple. What does this tell you about the purple color flower in pea plants? A. Nothing.B. There is not enough data to make a strong observation/hypothesis.C. White flower color is a dominant trait. D. Purple flower color is a dominant trait. E. Purple and white flower colors are co-dominant traits.

Answer 1

Answer:

D (purple flower plant is dominant)

Explanation:

Gregor Mendel was regarded as the "Father of Genetics" because of his outstanding contribution to discovering the pattern of inheritance. In his experiments with purebreeding purple and white-flowered plants, he discovered that the F1 offsprings were all purple-flowered.

This observation made him to propose his LAW OF DOMINANCE, which states that one allele of a gene is capable of masking the expression of another in a heterozygous state. In this case of flower colour gene, the allele for purple color (P) is masking the gene of the white colour (p) in a combined state. Hence, purple allele is said to be DOMINANT over white allele.

He discovered that the white allele was being masked when he performed a dihybrid cross i.e. F1 self cross to derive a plant with white flowers.