Why did Mendel selected pea plant for conducting his experiments
Answers
Mendel selected pea plant because of the following reasons :
• Pea plant bears bisexual flowers and are self pollinated .
• The structure of pea plant does not permit cross pollination but ensures self pollination .
•Being self pollinated pea plants are available in homozygous form . They produce offsprings of only one type generation after generation and thus maintain pure lines .
•Pea plants are annual . Therefore , several generations could be studied within a short period .
Gregor Mendel chose the pea plants for his experiments because the garden pea is an ideal subject in the study of genetics for the following reasons:
presence of observable traits with contrasting forms
produces many offspring in one cross
short life cycle
ease in manipulating pollination (cross-pollination)
Pea plants had the following characteristics:-
plants were sexually reproducing with bisexual flowers
self-pollination and self-fertilization is possible
the life cycle was completed in one season
hybrids were perfectly fertile
many varieties with well-defined characters were available i.e. presence of seven pairs of contrasting or allelomorphic characters