Question

A geneticist interested in studying variation and pattern of inheritance in living beings prefers to choose organisms for experiment with shorter life cycles. Provide a reason.

Answer 1

Hint: The study of variation and inheritance in a living organism is based upon the traits which are expressed by the organism and for that the study needs to be done on many generations of that species. After that the analysis of data is also essential for interferencing something.

Complete answer:
We all know that Mendel studied the pattern of inheritance on the peas plant and after his study he gave the Laws of Inheritance. In our previous classes we have studied about his approach for the study and why did he choose the pea plant for his study. The first and the main reason which was given by him was that the life span of these plants is around 6 months and the characters which he chose were clear and easy to distinguish among the other characters.
If the life span of the plant is short then it becomes easier for the scientist to access the plant's variation and he does not have to wait too long for the plants to develop and the variation to take place. The choice of shorter life span plants saves the time of the researcher and is very crucial for his research because he needs to have at least more than 3 generations in order to achieve the visible result as some of the characters may not express in the first and second generation. So the greater number of generations will give him the better quality of result.
Also if there are chances of error coming into play then the scientist will discover them in the early phase of his experiment.

Note: Not only the lifespan of the organism plays an important role in understanding variation patterns but it also depends upon the variation which we are like to observe. Like if we want to see variation in the flower pattern then we will have to take a plant in which we can differentiate the flowers from the other flowers of the same species.