Question

A flowering plant located in one part of the garden is producing showy purple flowers. A plant in the same species in a different part of the garden has bright pink flowers. When the pollen from one of these plants is transferred to the ovule of the other plant, seeds and then offspring are generated. When these seeds are planted in a different place in the garden, the resulting plants are allowed to flower, and data are gathered. Which statements predict the appropriate outcomes based on the inheritance patterns? Select ALL that apply.
A All offspring would be magenta in a codominance inheritance pattern.
B All offspring would be magenta in an incomplete dominance inheritance pattern.
C All offspring would be magenta if the pH of the soil is intermediate to the other two locations.
D Half of the offspring would be magenta and half would be pink in a codominance inheritance pattern.
E All offspring would be purple if this is dominant to pink according to a simple Mendelian inheritance pattern.

Answer 1

B and E.

- B (incomplete dominance): True — if purple and pink are incompletely dominant and the parents are homozygous, all F1 heterozygotes will show the intermediate (magenta) phenotype.
- E (simple Mendelian dominance): True — if purple is completely dominant to pink and the parents are homozygous, all F1 offspring (heterozygotes) will be purple.

Notes on the others:
- A and D are incorrect for codominance. Codominance gives simultaneous expression of both parental phenotypes in the heterozygote (e.g., patches or spots), not a blended magenta, and it doesn’t produce a 50:50 split of magenta vs pink in the F1.
- C is an environmental explanation (soil pH can affect color in some species), not a prediction based on inheritance; it might be true in specific species but is not an inheritance-pattern answer.