Snapdragons Genetics: Exploring Flower Color and Leaf Color Inheritance
How is flower color and leaf color inheritance determined in snapdragons?
In snapdragons, red flower color is incompletely dominant to white flower color and green leaves are dominant to purple leaves. What happens when a pink flowered purple leafed snapdragon crosses with a pink flowered snapdragon heterozygous for leaf color?
Understanding Snapdragons Genetics
In snapdragons, the inheritance of flower color and leaf color follows Mendelian genetics principles. Red flower color is incompletely dominant to white flower color, while green leaves are dominant to purple leaves.
When a pink flowered purple leafed snapdragon crosses with a pink flowered snapdragon heterozygous for leaf color, the progeny's flower and leaf color combinations can be predicted.
Exploring Progeny's Characteristics
When breeding snapdragons with different flower and leaf color combinations, it's essential to consider the alleles inherited from the parent plants. By understanding the genetic makeup of each parent, we can determine the potential outcomes in the progeny.
In the specific cross mentioned, where a pink flowered purple leafed snapdragon is crossed with a pink flowered snapdragon heterozygous for leaf color, the proportion of progeny that should be pink with purple leaves can be calculated.
The possible genotypes of the offspring include CRCR (pink flowered with green leaves), CRCW (pink flowered with green leaves), CRg (pink flowered with purple leaves), CWCW (white flowered with green leaves), CWg (white flowered with purple leaves), and gg (no flowers).
From these possibilities, one out of the six genotypes results in the desired phenotype of being pink with purple leaves. Therefore, the proportion of progeny that should exhibit this characteristic is approximately 16.7%.