Question

Mendel selected pea plant for his experiment because it has
a. Short cycle
b. Large number of offspring
c. Sexual reproduction
d. All of the above.

Answer 1

Mendel carried out his experiments using the garden pea, Pisum sativum, because it makes a convenient system for studies of inheritance. In pea plants we can easily produce true-breeding lines.

**Complete answer :**
Mendel is known as the father of genetics while T.H. Morgan is known as the father of modern genetics.
Useful features of peas plant include:
Short life cycle
The production of lots of seeds
Pea plants also self-fertilize
Pure lines can be created in them
Observable traits with contrasting forms are present in them

> So, the correct answer is (D) All of the above.

Note: Mendel conducted hybridization experiments on around 29,000 pea plants. The conditions for his experiments were:

1. possess constant contrasting character
2. hybrids must be protected from self-pollination.
   Mendel planned to selectively cross pollinate the peas with one another to study the traits passed on and the results from each pollination.
   In his experiment Mendel used following traits of pea plants:

flower color (purple or white)
flower position (axial or terminal)
stem length (long or short)
seed shape (round or wrinkled)
seed color (yellow or green)
pod shape (inflated or constricted)
pod colour (yellow or green)
The first generation of the hybrids produced a 3:1 ratio where the three plants showed dominant traits and 1 showed recessive. The second generation produces a 1:2:1 ratio i.e. one plant was recessive, two were hybrid and one was dominant.
When crossing a green pod plant and a yellow pod plant, the first generation (F1) would produce only green plants (given green was the dominant trait colour. But then the second generation (F2) produced a quarter yellow pea pod. These experiments allowed Mendel to conclude on two laws of Inheritance; the Law of Segregation and the Law of Independent Assortment.
The Principle/Law of Segregation, Mendel’s “First Law”
Mendel concluded on this law after finding when breeding white and purple coloured flowered plants it was not a mix of the two colours, but really one colour was chosen over the other. The law is a direct result of 1:2:1: ratio. The recessive traits only came when those were the only two being bred with each other.
The Principle/Law of Independent Assortment
Mendel decided different pairs of alleles are passed on as individuals and not based upon each other. Mendel when conducting dihybrid crosses, he got a 9:3:3:1 ratio. He concluded if the traits are not linked the traits are inherited independently.