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Weekend


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March 12, 2004

Strange But True!

  • A weekly column of incidental information, off-the-wall observations and other random facts about the world.
    • By BILL SONES and RICH SONES, Ph.D.
    Special to the Journal

    Q. From the Mendelian genetic standpoint, what is it that makes sex so super? Or answer this: If you cross purebred tall pea plants with purebred short ones, will you get a) mostly tall offspring plants? b) mostly shorts? c) mostly plants of intermediate (blended) heights?

    A. When 19th-century monk Gregor Mendel tried this, he got all talls in the first generation, then when he fertilized these hybrids with their own pollen, short progeny reappeared, in a ratio of 3 talls for every 1 short. So the answer is "a." Instead of the plants winding up with blended or averaged offspring of intermediate height, the tall genes dominated, then the recessive short ones reappeared the following generation.


     
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