Question

What is the blending theory of inheritance?
A. Mendel’s theory of how the traits of parents are passed to offspring through the gametes.
B. Darwin’s theory of how traits are passed from all parts of the parent body into the gamete to be transmitted to the offspring.
C. The modern theory of how genetic information is passed from parents to offspring.
D. An old theory that said offspring show traits intermediate between those of the parents.

Answer 1

Blending theory of inheritance was proved to be an obsolete theory in biology that was proposed in the 19th century. The theory was disproved by Mendel.

Complete answer: The theory claims that the offspring produced shows traits that is an intermediate trait of both the parent traits. The popular example which was circulated based on this theory was that crossing a plant having red flowers with a plant having a white flower of the same species would result in the yield of a pink-flowered offspring, that is an intermediate of both the colours.
This theory was based on Darwin’s Theory of Pangenesis, where traits are contributed to eggs or sperms from every part of the body. But this theory was discarded with the upcoming Mendelian pattern of inheritance, where the theory of particulate inheritance was proposed and widely accepted while doing experiments on plant hybridization.
1. Mendel’s theory of how the traits of parents are passed to offspring through the gametes was called the ‘Theory of particulate Inheritance’ and was used to disprove the Blending Theory of Inheritance.
2. Darwin’s theory of how traits are passed from all parts of the parent body into the gamete and then to the offspring was known as the ‘Theory of Pangenesis’ and was used as a base for proposing the Blending theory.
3. The modern theory of how genetic information is passed from parents to offspring is the base of the branch of genetics defining the pattern of occurrence of heredity.
Thus from the given options, C was found to be the most appropriate.

Note: Heredity is the pattern of inheritance of traits or characteristics from the parents to the offspring with the passing on of the genetic material. It is also known as inheritance or biological inheritance.