Question

during an experiment, a scientist crosses a pea plant that has purple flowers with a pea plant that has white flowers. the plants that result from this cross in the f₁ generation have both purple and white flowers. what can the scientist conclude?
white flowers are dominant over purple flowers.
neither purple flowers nor white flowers are dominant.
the plants in the p generation were not true - breeding.
all the plants in the f₂ generation will have purple flowers.

Explanation:

1. Analyze Option 1: If white were dominant, F₁ should all be white (or show white if dominant allele present). But F₁ has both, so this is wrong.
2. Analyze Option 2: Incomplete dominance or codominance would show a blend or both, but the key here is about true - breeding. This option is not the main conclusion from the given cross result.
3. Analyze Option 3: True - breeding plants (P generation) have homozygous alleles. If P generation was true - breeding (e.g., purple as PP and white as pp), F₁ should be all Pp (showing only the dominant trait, or a blend in incomplete dominance). But F₁ has both purple and white, so the P generation plants were not true - breeding (they must have had heterozygous alleles or different genetic makeup than true - breeding).
4. Analyze Option 4: If F₁ has both purple and white, F₂ generation will have a variety of genotypes and phenotypes, not all purple. So this is wrong.

Answer:

C. The plants in the P generation were not true - breeding.