Question

Self-pollination preserves the parental characters in the offspring. Why is this a disadvantage?

• A. Defective characters of the variety cannot be eliminated.
• B. All of the above.
• C. It weakens the variety or the species.
• D. There is no intermixing of the genetic information.

Answer 1

The correct option is B All of the above.

Self-pollination is the transfer of pollen grains of a plant to the ovary of a flower present on the same plant. So, when fertilisation takes place, there is no addition of any new genetic information to the zygote. The mixing of different genetic information produces variation, which results in the synthesis of new varieties.
So, self-pollination weakens the variety or species because there is no introduction of new genes in the offspring.
Defective characters of the variety cannot be eliminated because there is no mixing of genetic information from the parents with different sets of genes.