Why did Mendel select pea plants for his study?

✏️Gregor Mendel chose pea plants (Pisum sativum) for his groundbreaking experiments on inheritance for several reasons, each contributing to his success:
-Short life cycle: Pea plants have a short lifespan of approximately 2-3 months, allowing Mendel to observe multiple generations within a reasonable timeframe. This was crucial for studying and tracking the patterns of inheritance across generations.
-Self-pollinated nature: Pea plants are naturally self-pollinating, meaning pollen from the same flower fertilizes the egg cell. This enabled Mendel to control the mating process and ensure pure-breeding (homozygous) parents for his experiments. Controlled breeding helped him isolate specific traits and observe their transmission accurately.
-Distinct and easily observable traits: Mendel chose pea plants with easily distinguishable traits like flower color (purple or white), seed shape (round or wrinkled), pod color (green or yellow), and plant height (tall or short). These clear visual differences made it easier to track the inheritance patterns and analyze the results.
-Large flower size: While not the primary reason, the larger size of the pea flower compared to other potential choices like Arabidopsis made it easier for Mendel to manipulate the pollen and perform controlled crosses.
-By strategically choosing pea plants with these advantageous characteristics, Mendel laid the foundation for his discoveries in genetics, which later became known as Mendelian inheritance.

🔴 Related Terminology:
-Generation: A group of individuals born at about the same time.
-Homozygous: Having identical alleles for a particular gene.
-Heterozygous: Having different alleles for a particular gene.
-Phenotype: The observable characteristics of an individual.
-Genotype: The genetic makeup of an individual.