Question

Mendel developed pure lines of peas for his experiments because he wanted them to be _____.

Answer 1

Mendel developed pure lines of peas to ensure his experimental plants were true-breeding, which means they were homogeneous and consistently produced offspring with identical traits to the parents.

Step-by-step explanation:

Mendel developed pure lines of peas for his experiments because he wanted them to be homogeneous. This involved selecting pea plants that consistently produced offspring with identical traits to the parent—commonly referred to as true-breeding plants. By using true-breeding pea plants, Mendel ensured that any variations in offspring were due to the experimental cross and not to an underlying variable, which could confound the results. His meticulous approach involved using monohybrid crosses where each parent differed in only one characteristic, such as pod color being yellow or green. By working with plants that exhibited clearly dominant and recessive traits, Mendel laid the foundations for his laws of inheritance.

Answer 2

The answer is dominant homozygotes.

At the beginning of his work, the term dominant homozygote did not exist. However, this is what Mendel had accomplished when making his pure breed peas.
When developing the pure breeds for a certain trait (shape, color etc) Mendel wanted to design plants which will only pass their dominant trait to their offspring. By making these pure breeds and following the patterns of the inheritance he was able to discover the fundamental principles of genetics.