Understanding the Principles of Mendelian Inheritance: Predicting the Phenotypes of F2 Generation in Plant Height

A tall parent plant and a short parent plant mate. if tall F1 plants self-pollinate, what will the F2 plants look like?

In order to predict the appearance of the F2 plants resulting from the cross between a tall parent plant and a short parent plant, you need to understand the principles of Mendelian inheritance

In order to predict the appearance of the F2 plants resulting from the cross between a tall parent plant and a short parent plant, you need to understand the principles of Mendelian inheritance. The inheritance of plant height in this case is typically determined by a single gene with two alleles: “T” (tall) and “t” (short).

Let’s refer to the tall parent plant as TT and the short parent plant as tt. When they mate, their offspring, which are the F1 generation, will all have the genotype Tt. The “T” allele is dominant, meaning that even if only one copy of the allele is present, the plant will exhibit the tall trait.

Now, when the F1 generation plants self-pollinate, they will produce gametes with either the T or t allele. Thus, the possible combinations of alleles that can be formed are: TT, Tt, and tt.

If we consider the genotypes of the F2 generation plants, we can use a Punnett square to determine the expected outcomes:

| T | t |
——————————-
T | TT | Tt |
——————————-
t | Tt | tt |

As shown in the Punnett square, the F2 generation would consist of plants with the genotypes TT, Tt, and tt.

To determine their phenotypes, we can use the knowledge that the “T” allele is dominant and will result in a tall plant, while the “t” allele is recessive and will lead to a short plant. The F2 generation plants with the genotypes TT and Tt will be tall, whereas the plants with the genotype tt will be short.

Therefore, the F2 generation resulting from the self-pollination of the F1 plants will consist of both tall and short plants, following a phenotypic ratio of 3:1 (3 tall plants:1 short plant).

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