Question

A plant breeder found a species of flowering plant with very attractive flowers growing wild in a field and she thought it would appeal to her customers. Some of the plants of this species had red flowers, some white flowers, and some pink flowers. While she would like to be able to offer her customers all three colors of flowers, she only has permission from the landowner to dig up one plant to bring back to the nursery as breeding stock. What would be the best thing for her to do?

Take a white flowering plant since the white allele could be masking the pink allelle.
Take a pink flowering plant since it is likely to carry both the red and white alleles.
Take a red flowering plant since it could produce all three colors eventually.
Take a red flowering plant since the red allele is likely the dominant one.

Answer 1

Take the pink flower plant since it is likely to carry both the red and white alleles.

Answer 2

The pink flower is most probably a combination of the red and white flowers. Since neither red or white are dominant it's called 'incomplete dominance', meaning the flowers can turn out red, white or a combination of both. Your answer is ' Take a pink flowering plant since it is likely to carry both the red and white alleles.'