In the F1 generation of Mendel’s experiment obtained by crossing pea plants of long stems with those of short stems, What was his observation?

Answer Details

In the F1 generation of Mendel's experiment obtained by crossing pea plants of long stems with those of short stems, his observation was that all the offspring (F1 generation) had long stems. To understand why this happened, we need to know about Mendel's laws of inheritance. According to Mendel's first law or the law of segregation, each organism carries two copies of a gene (alleles), and these alleles segregate during the formation of gametes, with each gamete carrying only one allele. In Mendel's experiment, the tallness trait (long stem) was dominant, while the shortness trait (short stem) was recessive. The tall parent plants in Mendel's experiment had two copies of the tall allele (TT), while the short parent plants had two copies of the short allele (tt). When these two types of plants were crossed, the resulting offspring (F1 generation) all inherited one copy of the tall allele and one copy of the short allele (Tt). However, the tall allele is dominant, which means that it masks the presence of the recessive short allele. As a result, all the offspring in the F1 generation had long stems because they inherited at least one copy of the dominant tall allele. The recessive short allele did not show up in the phenotype of the F1 generation. Therefore, Mendel's observation was that all the offspring in the F1 generation had long stems.