Question

gregor mendel, a christian monk, performed an experiment by putting pollen from a pea plant with purple flowers on the pistil of a plant with white flowers. the resulting second generation of offspring had all purple flowers. mendel wondered if all future pea plant flowers would be purple, if the ability to make white flowers had receded or become hidden. he was wondering if white flowers were a recessive trait.
when organisms reproduce by sexual reproduction, each offspring receives two strands of chromosomes - one from each parent. for any given trait, if the genes are not identical, one of the two traits will be dominant and the other will be recessive. the dominant, or stronger, gene is the one that the offspring develops. however, the organism still retains a gene for the recessive trait on one of its chromosomes, so it may pass that trait down to its offspring one day.
which of these provides evidence that brown eyes are dominant and blue eyes are recessive?
choose one option
a everyone in your extended family has green eyes.
b your mom has blue eyes, your dad has brown eyes, and you have brown eyes.
c your parents have blue eyes, your siblings have blue eyes, and so do you.
d people with blond hair often have blue eyes.

Explanation:

To determine which option shows brown eyes are dominant and blue eyes recessive, we analyze each:

• Option A: Green eyes are irrelevant to brown/blue dominance, so it’s incorrect.
• Option B: Mom (blue, recessive) and dad (brown, dominant) → offspring (you) have brown (dominant trait expressed), matching Mendel’s dominant - recessive logic.
• Option C: All with blue eyes shows blue as dominant (or homozygous recessive parents passing blue), which contradicts the claim, so incorrect.
• Option D: Hair - eye correlation doesn’t prove dominance, so incorrect.

Answer:

B. Your mom has blue eyes, your dad has brown eyes, and you have brown eyes.