Question

Who hypothesized that the individuals of the same species have the same number of chromosomes?
A. Augustus Weisemann
B. Theodor Boveri
C. Wilhelm Roux
D. Robert Remark

Answer 1

He created an extension to Mendel’s laws, known as the chromosomal theory of inheritance.

Complete answer: Augustus Weisemann was a German evolutionary biologist who formulated the germplasm theory of inheritance.
Wilhelm Roux was a German zoologist, who is a pioneer in experimental embryology.
He proposed the mosaic theory of epigenesis.
Robert Remark was a German-Polish physiologist. He discovered that the origin of cells is by the division of the pre-existing cells.
The chromosomal theory of inheritance was developed by Theodor Boveri and Walter Sutton in the early 1900s. This theory explains what Mendel observed in his pea plants.
This theory is otherwise known as the Boveri and Sutton theory.

Additional information: The chromosomal theory of inheritance was supported by the following observation:
1. Homologous chromosome pairs migrate as discrete structures during meiosis and are independent of other chromosome pairs.
2. The sorting of gametes appears to be random.
3. The gametes synthesized by the parents consist of only half of their chromosome complement.
4. The male and female gametes consist of the same number of chromosomes even though they r different in their morphology. During fertilization, the gametes fuse, and the resulting progeny will have the same number of chromosomes as the parents.

Hence the correct option is ‘B’.

Note: The chromosomal theory of inheritance was given as an explanation for Mendel’s laws of inheritance. The work of Mendel on pea plant which was morphologically explained by him was given a proper explanation by this theory.