The Demonstration of Genetic Transmission Through the Growth of Wild Turnip

Abstract

Mendel’s dihybrid cross experiment was a historical breakthrough on the subject of trait transmission from parent to offspring. He planted pea plants of the same breed with different traits and crossbred them to create generations of plants with a combination of traits from the previous generations. Similar to Mendel’s experiment, this experiment is done by planting a plant with anthocyaninless and hairless genes through several generations. The dominant trait is purple stem and recessive trait is non-purple stem. Three pots of plants are planted for the first generation under cool white fluorescent light and new generations will be planted using seeds harvested and crossbred from previous generations. A plant from 2 parent plants is grown with a 75% possibility for dominant traits (purple stem), and a 25% possibility for recessive traits (non-purple stem). In the plants planted, all three plants showed the non-purple stem trait, demonstrating a 100% recessive turnout. The planting of the seeds with parents of different traits demonstrates heredity and the inheritance of parental traits. Using the observation of a few simple traits in the plant, human heredity could also be connected and understood to a greater extent. If more time and resources are given, possible further experiments could include crossbreeding and multi-generational planting.