Question

Mendel selected Pea as material for his experiments because
A. It is an annual plant with comparatively short life cycle
B. The flowers are self – pollinated
C. The number of seeds produced is quite large
D. All the above.

Answer 1

Hint: The life cycle of pea lasts for one year as it is an annual plant. In addition, the probability of cross-pollination is less in pea plants. Mendel use garden pea (Pisum sativum) in his experiment and studied contrasting traits.

Step by step answer:Gregor Mendel Austrian monk experimented with pea plants and
developed three principles of inheritance, which describes the transmission of genetic traits. He selected
pea plant as it was easy for him to control fertilization and avoid cross-pollination. Seven different
characteristics were observed in the pea plant. It comprises of height (tall or short), pod shape (inflated or constricted), seed shape (smooth or wrinkled), pea color (green or yellow), and so on. He crossed pure – breeding parents, hybrid generations and crossed the hybrid progeny back to both parents. The other reasons for selecting the pea plant for his experiments are as follows: the life cycle of the pea plant is short and has well-defined characteristics, it produces bisexual flowers which comprise of both male and female parts, it is self – pollinates and in a very short period it can produce a large number of offspring.
Hence,the correct answer is option D: all the above

Note: The experiment performed by Mendel made him come to the conclusion of laws of inheritance. They are Law of dominance and Uniformity, Law of Segregation and Law of Independent Assortment. The Law of dominance and uniformity states that some alleles are dominant while others are recessive; if the organism contains at least one dominant allele then it will display the effect of the dominant allele. The Law of segregation states that during the formation of gamete the alleles present in each gene segregate so that it can form gamete which carries only one allele for each gene. The Law of Independent Assortment states that during the formation of gametes genes of the different traits can separate independently.