Question

Mention the advantages of selecting pea plant for experiment by Mendel.

Answer 1

Pea plants present a lot of varieties like size of pod, type of seed, colour of seed etc. This is why Mendel chose the pea plant

Answer 2

Advantages of selecting pea plant:

Gregor Johann Mendel is called the father of genetics, and back in the 1860s, he chose sweet pea plants Pisum sativum for his experiments. He got some advantages for his selection and they are as follows:

• Sweet pea has bisexual flower, so it’s easy to let themselves breed to get pure lines within a few generations.

• Sweet pea is a plant with lots of characters like flower colour, pod colour, height, etc. So, it's easy to choose any one or more from them, where Mendel chose height and flower color.

• Although generally, self-pollinating, it’s very easy to emasculate the flowers to make them pollinate using desired pollen grains.

• Easily available and cheap.