Question

Mendel crossed pea plants with two pairs of contrasting characters.

RRYY	×	rryy
Round,  Yellow		Wrinkled, Green

He observed 4 types of combinations in F2 generation. Which of the combinations were new? Write the conclusion drawn by this experiment.

Answer 1

A Mendelian experiment will find that some F2 progeny are tall plants with round seeds, and some were short plants with wrinkled seeds. However, there would also be some F2 progeny that showed new combinations. Some would be tall but have wrinkled seeds, while others would be short but have round seeds. You can see how new combinations of traits are formed in F2 offspring when factors controlling for seed shape and seed colour recombine to form a zygote, leading to the form of F2 offspring. Thus, the tall/short trait and the round seed/wrinkled seed trait are independently inherited.