Question

To test whether a tall plant (in which the allele that determines tallness is dominant and the allele that determines shortness is recessive) is homozygous or heterozygous, you could:______

Answer 1

To determine if a tall plant is homozygous or heterozygous, perform a test cross with a homozygous recessive plant. If all offspring are tall, the plant is homozygous; if there is a 1:1 ratio of tall to short offspring, it is heterozygous.

Step-by-step explanation:

To test whether a tall plant, with tallness being a dominant allele, is homozygous (TT) or heterozygous (Tt), you can perform a test cross. This is done by crossing the plant in question with a plant that is homozygous recessive (tt) for the trait of being short.

If the plant is homozygous for tallness, all offspring from this cross will be tall (Tt). However, if the plant is heterozygous, there will be a 1:1 ratio of tall (Tt) to short (tt) offspring.

This result occurs due to the random segregation of alleles during the formation of gametes, known as Mendelian inheritance.