Question

Correns' experiment regarding Cytoplasmic inheritance in Mirabilis involved __________.

• A. Plastids
• B. Mitochondria
• C. Nucleus
• D. Golgi bodies

Hint:

Recall the leaf-colour variegation study in the four o'clock plant.

Answer 1

The Correct Option is A

Step 1: Carl Correns worked on the four o'clock plant, Mirabilis jalapa, which shows variegated leaves with green, white and pale branches.

Step 2: He found that the colour of the offspring depended only on the branch that provided the female parent (the seed-bearing branch), not on the pollen source, showing maternal, non-Mendelian inheritance.

Step 3: This pattern is explained by plastids, which carry their own DNA and are transmitted mainly through the cytoplasm of the egg cell, not through pollen.

Step 4: Mitochondria, nucleus and Golgi bodies were not the structures involved in this classic leaf-variegation study, so plastids is correct.