Gregor Mendel used pea plants to conduct experiments on genetics and heredity. He grew approximately 29,000 plants to study seven characteristics: flower color, seed texture, seed color, stem length, pod color, pod texture, and flower position. Mendel was able to demonstrate that these characteristics were passed from one generation to the next and that the offspring could inherit the characteristics from either one, or from both, of the parent plants.
Referring to the passage, tell why it was important that Gregor Mendel used a large number of plants in his experiments into genetics and heredity?
- Pea plants are susceptible to disease, so he needed a lot of them to make sure enough would survive to adulthood to allow him to draw his conclusions.
- With a large number of plants, he could demonstrate that the results didn’t just happen by chance.
- It wasn’t important at all – pea plants produce lots of seeds, so he planted them all to see what would happen.
- Plants don’t have as many genes as animals, so he needed more of them to study genetics properly.