A child receives a tall beautiful plant as a birthday gift from his father with a quiz. The father asked her how she would verify whether this tall plant was the progeny of both the tall parents or one tall and one short parent plant. She could verify this through

The correct answer is Option 2: self-pollination.

According to Mendelian genetics, a tall plant can be either homozygous dominant (TT) or heterozygous (Tt). To determine its parental lineage (whether it came from two tall parents or one tall and one short parent), the child must observe the traits of the next generation (F2).

• Why self-pollination works: If the tall plant is a progeny of one tall (TT) and one short (tt) parent, it is a hybrid (Tt). Upon self-pollination, it will produce both tall and short offspring in a 3:1 ratio. However, if it came from two pure-breeding tall parents (TT x TT), self-pollination would yield only tall plants.
• Why others are incorrect: Cross-pollination (Option 1) introduces new genetic material, complicating the results. Tissue culture (Option 3) and vegetative propagation (Option 4) are asexual methods that produce exact clones, failing to reveal hidden recessive alleles.