A biology student decides to copy Mendel’s experiment with pea plants. Unfortunately, some of the pea plants from the P generation, the “true-breeding” plants, get mixed in with some of the F1 generation plants. The student attempts to sort out the plants by crossing two purple-flowered plants that are believed to be heterozygous F1 plants. The results of this cross produce 100 offspring of which 72 have purple flowers and 28 have white flowers. Which of the following statements are true?

Question

A biology student decides to copy Mendel’s experiment with pea plants. Unfortunately, some of the pea plants from the P generation, the “true-breeding” plants, get mixed in with some of the F1 generation plants. The student attempts to sort out the plants by crossing two purple-flowered plants that are believed to be heterozygous F1 plants. The results of this cross produce 100 offspring of which 72 have purple flowers and 28 have white flowers. Which of the following statements are true?

Choose one or more:
A. All of the purple-flowered plants are homozygous.
B. The purple-flowered offspring are a mix of homozygous and heterozygous plants.
C. Both of the parents are heterozygous for flower color.
D. One of the parent plants is homozygous for purple flower color, and the
other parent is heterozygous for flower color.
E. All of the purple-flowered plants are heterozygous.

Answer 1

B. The purple-flowered offspring are a mix of homozygous and heterozygous plants.

D. One of the parent plants is homozygous for purple flower color, and the other parent is heterozygous for flower color.