Question

(a) Why did Mendel choose pea plants for his experiments? Give any four reasons.
(b) State Mendel's law of independent assortment.

Answer 1

(a) Mendel selected garden pea plant for his experiments because of the following characteristics:

(i) The flowers of this plant are bisexual.

(ii) They are self-pollinating, and thus, self and cross pollination can easily be performed.

(iii) The different physical characteristics were easy to recognise and study.

(iv) They have a shorter life span and are the plants are easier to maintain.

(b) According to Mendel's law of independent assortment, during the inheritance of two or more characters, the assortment of individual traits takes place independently during gamete formation. Thus each allele of a pair segregates independently and each gamete formed contains one allele of that trait. This law is inapplicable for linked genes.