Question

A Mendelian experiment consisted of breeding tall pea plants bearing violet flowers with short pea plants bearing white flowers. The progeny all bore violet flowers, but almost half of them were short. This suggests that the genetic make-up of the tall parent can be depicted as
A. TTWW
B. TTww
C. TtWW
D. TtWw

Answer 1

Correct Answer - C
Explanation : T is the gene for tallness, t is the gene for shortness (or dwarfness), W is the gene for violet colour and w is the gene for white colour. Now, in this case, all the progeny bore violet flowers so the parent tall plant must contain only the dominant genes for colour (which is violet colour). That is , the parent plant should have the gene pair WW. Again, since almost half of progeny plants were short, this means that the parent tall plant should contain genes for tallness as well as shorthness. That is, the parent plant should have genes Tt in it . Now , combining Tt and WW, the genetic make up of the parent plant becomes TtWW.