Brassica Rapa's Theory Of Inheritance

Since the dawn of cognitive thought, human civilizations have sought to understand the inheritance of certain physical traits from parents to their offspring. The limited knowledge of the true mechanism of inheritance remained elusive for many generations. The role of inheritance was clear, as seen with selective breeding of livestock and plant life. This could be seen by, breeding two parental types that had specific desirable traits and getting the desired results in offspring, most of the time. Many theories of inheritance arose from these observations. Before a more profound and correct theory of inheritance was discovered, there were four prominent theories that were generally accepted. Perhaps one of the oldest theories was the first incarnation of the theory pangenesis, …show more content…
These Wisconsin Fast plants are a member of the family Brassica, called Brassica Rapa. The Brassica, family consist of many commercially produced consumable goods, such as, greens, broccoli, cauliflower, Brussel sprouts and turnips. The Brassica Rapa is native species commonly found throughout the continents of Europe and Asia. The seeds of the Brassica Rapa, were known for their disease resistance that commonly affected crops in the United States. In light of this, seedlings were brought and stored in the University of Ames in Iowa’s Department of Agricultural seed collection. Once in America the use of these seeds was implied to investigate and discover the gene responsible for this disease resistance, and breed these strands with many common commercial produce that would then be resistant to disease. During these experiments it was noted that the reproductive cycle of the Brassica Rapa was very short and fast. Seedlings from these plants were then used to study the mechanism of genetic inheritance because of their fast reproductive