Question

A pea plant with purple flowers, when crossed with a plant with white, produced 50 plants with only purple flowers. On selfing these plants produced 482 plants with purple flower and 162 with white flowers. Explain the pattern of inheritance with the help of Punnett square.

Hint:

Punnett squares are useful tools for predicting the inheritance patterns of genetic traits in offspring.

Answer 1

The first generation (F1) produced only purple-flowered plants because purple is dominant. In the second generation (F2), the ratio of purple to white flowers is approximately 3:1. \[ P: PP (purple) \times pp (white) \quad \text{F1: All Pp (purple)} \] F2 generation cross: \[ Pp \times Pp \quad \text{gives: PP, Pp, Pp, pp.} \] Phenotypic ratio: 3 (purple):1 (white).