Question
Give any four reasons for Mendel's success.
Solution
Reasons for Mendel's Success
A combination of luck, foresight, mathematical approach and scientific aptitude contributed to the success of Mendel's experiments.
Method of Working
1. Mendel studied inheritance of one character at a time whereas earlier scientists had considered the organism as a whole.
2. Mendel carried out experiments up to the second and third generations.
3. He maintained the statistical records of all the experiments and analysed them carefully.
4. Cross-breeding was done between the parents of pure lines.
5. The pure lines of parent plants were ascertained by a series of self-crossing tests between progeny of each successive generation.
6. Mendel's experiments dealt with a large sample size.
Advantages of Selecting Pea Plant
Mendel's selection of garden pea plant as experimental plant had following advantages:
1. It is an annual plant. Because of short life cycle, Mendel was able to study several generations of the plant within a short period.
2. Its flowers are complete and predominantly self-pollinating.
3. Because of self-pollination, plants are homozygous. Therefore, pure lines of pea plant were available.
4. Pea plant has a number of easily detectable contrasting characters, related as dominant and recessive.
5. Pea plant produces large number of seeds one generation.
