Mendel's Pea Plant Crosses: Understanding Flower Color Inheritance

Inheritance Pattern of Blue Flower Color in Mendel's Pea Plant Crosses

Blue flower color in Mendel's pea plant crosses is inherited as a dominant trait. When Mendel performed his genetic experiments with pea plants, he discovered that certain traits, like flower color, followed specific inheritance patterns. In the case of blue flower color, it is considered a dominant trait, which means that only one allele needs to be present for the blue color to be expressed in the offspring.

In Mendel's experiments, he crossed pea plants with different flower colors and observed the resulting offspring. By carefully tracking the inheritance of traits through generations, he was able to deduce the patterns of inheritance and create his famous laws of inheritance.

For blue flower color in particular, if a pea plant carries the dominant allele for blue flower color (represented by B), it will exhibit blue flowers. If the plant carries two recessive alleles instead (represented by bb), it will exhibit a different flower color, such as white or purple, depending on the specific genetic makeup.