Question

List and explain the steps Mendel had to do in order to fertilize the ovum (egg) of one flower with the pollen

Answer 1

Mendel carried out his key experiments using the garden pea, Pisum sativum, as a model system.

Pea plants make a convenient system for studies of inheritance, and they are still studied by some geneticists today.

Useful features of peas include their rapid life cycle and the production of lots and lots of seeds.

Pea plants also typically self-fertilize, meaning that the same plant makes both the sperm and the egg that come together in fertilization.

Mendel took advantage of this property to produce true-breeding pea lines: he self-fertilized and selected peas for many generations until he got lines that consistently made offspring identical to the parent (e.g., always short).

Pea plants are also easy to cross, or mate in a controlled way.

This is done by transferring pollen from the anthers (male parts) of a pea plant of one variety to the carpel (female part) of a mature pea plant of a different variety.

To prevent the receiving plant from self-fertilizing, Mendel removed all of the immature anthers from the plant’s flowers before the cross

Because peas were so easy to work with and prolific in seed production, Mendel could perform many crosses and examine many individual plants, making sure that his results were consistent and accurate.

Ps- A positive rating would be highly appreciated

Thanks