Question

Tall height is dominant to short height in pea plants. You have a tall pea plant that you cross with a short pea plant. What is the genotype of the tall parent if some of the offspring are short? The tall parent was homozygous dominant and the offspring were all homozygous dominant The tall parent was homozygous dominant There is not enough information to answer this question. The tall parent was heterozygous The offspring were all homozygous dominan

Answer 1

The tall parent was heterozygous

Step-by-step explanation:

If tall height is dominant to short height the only genotype possible for short height is hh, while there are two possible genotypes for tall height, Hh and HH. When HH is crossed with hh all the offspring are Hh, but if Hh is crossed with hh, a quarter of the offspring is HH, a quarter is hh and half is Hh. If the tall pea plants were HH there would only be tall offspring, but because there are some short offspring we know that the tall pea plants must have a genotype of Hh.