Describe how Mendel showed that the green-seed trait did not disappear but was only masked.
Answer (2)
Mendel had determined that the allele for green seeds had not vanished because after the second generation of yellow seeds, green seeds started appearing again. He logically concluded that the yellow allele was a dominant trait and the green allele was a nondominant trait.
Mendel showed that the green seed trait was not lost but masked by the dominant yellow trait in the first generation. By crossing yellow and green pea plants, he observed that the recessive green trait reappeared in the second generation at a 3:1 ratio. His experiments confirmed the principles of dominance and inheritance, demonstrating that recessive traits can persist in a lineage even if not expressed.
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