Question

How do Mendel’s experiments show that traits may be dominant or recessive?

Answer 1

Mendel's Experiment

1. Mendel selected true breeding tall (TT) and dwarf (tt) pea plants.
2. Then, he crossed these two plants. The seeds formed after fertilization were grown and these plants that were formed represent the first filial or F1 generation.
3. All the F1 plants obtained were tall.

Cross-pollination of tall and short plant

Then, Mendel self-pollinated the F1 plants and observed that all plants obtained in the F2 generation were not tall. Instead, one-fourth of the F2 plants were short.

Self pollination of F1 plants

From this experiment Mendel concluded that the F1 tall plants were not breeding. They were carrying traits of both short height and tall height. They appeared tall only because the tall trait is dominant over the dwarf trait.