Mendel's Pea Plant Experiments Quiz

What is the primary reason Mendel used pea plants in his experiments?

• Peas are expensive and rare

• Peas grow quickly and have easily observable traits

• Peas have very few genetic variations

• Peas are the only plants that can self-fertilize.

Mendel chose pea plants for his experiments because they exhibit distinct characteristics. Which of the following is NOT a reason Mendel used pea plants?

• They grow quickly

• They have easily observable traits

• They produce only one type of offspring

• They can self-pollinate and cross-pollinate

When Mendel crossed yellow-seeded pea plants with green-seeded pea plants, all the F1 offspring had yellow seeds. What does this indicate?

• Yellow is a dominant trait

• Green is a dominant trait

• The traits blended together

• The seed color is determined by the soil type

Lorence crosses pea plants that differ in two traits—seed shape (round or wrinkled) and seed color (yellow or green). He finds that the inheritance of one trait does not affect the other. Which Mendelian law does this demonstrate?

• Law of Segregation

• Law of Independent Assortment

• Law of Dominance

• Law of Probability

Mendel observed that when two heterozygous tall plants (Tt) were crossed, the F₂ generation showed a ratio of 3 tall plants for every 1 short plant. What does this ratio represent?

• Genotypic ratio

• Phenotypic ratio

• Mutation rate

• Environmental influence

Joshua asks his biology teacher why all F₁ plants in Mendel’s first experiment were tall. What is the best explanation?

• The tall trait is recessive.

• The short trait is dominant.

• The tall trait is dominant, so it masks the short trait.

• The short trait mutated into a tall trait.

Vhia noticed that her baby brother has dimples while she and her parents do not. She wonders how this trait appeared in their family. What is the most likely explanation?

• Dimples are a spontaneous mutation

• One or both parents may be carriers of the recessive allele for dimples

• Environmental factors caused the dimples to appear

• The baby’s dimples will disappear as he grows older

Mendel started his experiments with true-breeding pea plants. If a plant is true-breeding for the tall trait, what is its genotype?

• TT

• Tt

• tt

• Tt or tt

Rhambie wants to grow only plants with round seeds, a dominant trait (R). Which genotype should he use to ensure all offspring inherit the round trait?

• RR only

• Rr only

• rr only

• RR or Rr

Jelian crosses two heterozygous tall pea plants (Tt × Tt). He notices that 75% of the offspring are tall, while 25% are short. Why did some plants turn out short?

• A mutation changed their height.

• The short plants inherited the tt genotype.

• Tall plants do not pass on their traits.

• The environment caused them to be short.