It would have been very difficult for Mendel to draw conclusions about the patterns of inheritance i

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It would have been very difficult for Mendel to draw conclusions about the patterns of inheritance if he had used cattle instead of peas. Why?

Accepted Answer

Sol.(b) [Key Concept: Mendel's Experimental Material — Advantages of Peas] The primary problem with using cattle is that they have very SMALL numbers of offspring (usually 1 calf per pregnancy). Mendel's success depended on statistical analysis of LARGE numbers of offspring (he counted thousands of pea plants). Statistical patterns (3:1 ratios, 9:3:3:1 ratios) require large sample sizes to be detectable. Cattle's long generation time and few offspring per litter would make it impossible to detect Mendelian ratios.

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