Question

Out of the seven characters in Pea plant studied by Mendel, the number of flower-based characters was
A. 1
B. 3
C. 4
D. 2

Answer 1

The Mendelian characters present in pea plants. Mendel experimented with garden pea plants with seven contrasting traits, for example, seed shape is a character that has two contrasting traits- round and wrinkled shape.

Complete answer: Gregor Johann Mendel worked on a pea plant or Pisum sativum for several years and gave three laws of inheritance. He is considered the Father of Modern Genetics. Mendel followed traits like plant height, seed colour, seed shape, and many more. In total, he took 7 contrasting characters, with each character having only two forms. He took pure breeding lines by continuous self-crossing of the same plant. Once the pure breeding lines were created, he did crosses and obtained the results.
The seven contrasting characters he took were:
1. Plant height
2. Flower position
3. Seed colour
4. Seed shape
5. Flower colour
6. Pod colour
7. Pod shape
Out of all these, only flower colour is a flower-based character that has two forms: violet or dominant and white or recessive. The Mendel laws are:
-Law of dominance
-Law of segregation
-Law of independent assortment
Hence option D, 2 is correct

Note: Mendel was the first scientist to study genetics, and also the first one to incorporate maths with biology. Due to this reason, his work was initially ignored and then rediscovered after 40 years. His law of segregation is universal and holds for every living organism. He was considered much ahead of his time, as most biologists of that era were interested in evolution and considered character blending to be true.