A student encounters a plant bearing small, purple flowers in the wild. The size of the flowers and the purple color are determined by two separate genes. The genes for both small size (S) and purple color (P) are dominant to large size (s) and white color (p), respectively.

Question

A student encounters a plant bearing small, purple flowers in the wild. The size of the flowers and the purple color are determined by two separate genes. The genes for both small size (S) and purple color (P) are dominant to large size (s) and white color (p), respectively.

The student wants to determine the genotype of the newly isolated plant. Crossing it to which of these plants would provide the most information in one generation?
A.
SSPP
B.
SSpp
C.
SsPp
D.
sspp

Answer 1

C. SsPp

Crossing the newly isolated plant with SsPp would provide the most information in one generation because it would allow for the determination of the genotype of all four genes. By crossing with SsPp, the offspring would be expected to have a mix of small and large flowers as well as purple and white flowers, allowing for the determination of whether the newly isolated plant is homozygous dominant (SSPP), heterozygous (SsPp), or homozygous recessive (sspp) for both traits.