Question

during an experiment, a scientist crosses a pea plant that has purple flowers with a pea plant that has white flowers. the plants that result from this cross in the f₁ generation have both purple and white flowers. what can the scientist conclude?
white flowers are dominant over purple flowers.
neither purple flowers nor white flowers are dominant.
the plants in the p generation were not true - breeding.
all the plants in the f₂ generation will have purple flowers.

Explanation:

• Option A: If white were dominant over purple, the F₁ generation should have all white flowers (if the purple parent was homozygous recessive), but here F₁ has both, so A is wrong.
• Option B: Since both colors appear in F₁, it shows that one is not masking the other completely, so neither is dominant, which fits the observation of both colors in F₁.
• Option C: True - breeding plants (homozygous) would produce F₁ with only one trait if crossed, but here F₁ has both, so the P generation can't be true - breeding, but this is not the best conclusion about the dominance relationship.
• Option D: In F₂, if neither is dominant, we would expect a mix, not all purple, so D is wrong.

Answer:

B. Neither purple flowers nor white flowers are dominant.