Question

if a horticulturist breeding plants known as gardenias succeeds in having a single plant with a particularly desirable set of traits, which of the following processes would be her most probable and efficient route to establishing a line of such plants with that particular set of traits? breed this plant with another plant with much weaker traits. clone the plant asexually to produce an identical one. go back through her previous experiments to obtain another plant with the same traits. force the plant to self - pollinate to obtain an identical one.

Explanation:

• Breeding with a plant with weaker traits may dilute the desirable traits.
• Cloning (asexual reproduction) ensures that the offspring have the exact same genetic makeup as the parent plant, thus maintaining the desirable set of traits.
• Going back through previous experiments is not efficient as the previous experiments may not yield the plant with the same traits easily.
• Self - pollination (sexual reproduction in plants) can lead to genetic variation due to processes like meiosis and recombination, so it may not produce an identical plant.

Answer:

Clone the plant asexually to produce an identical one.