When a variegated female four o'clock plant is crossed with any male plant, progeny plants can have either green, white, or variegated leaves. Which of the following statements correctly explain this result? Select all that apply. a. The female plant produces some gametes that are homoplasmic. b. The female plant is heterozygous. c. The female plant produces some gametes that are heteroplasmic. d. The female plant is homozygous in some cells and heterozygous in other cells. e. Leaf phenotype is determined by the number of normal or mutant chloroplasts inherited from the female parent.

The correct statements are

a.The female plant produces some gametes that are homoplasmic.

c.The female plant produces some gametes that are heteroplasmic.

e.Leaf phenotype is determined by the number of normal or mutant chloroplasts inherited from the female parent.

Explanation:

The results clearly indicated that the phenotype of the progeny was clearly dependent on the female parent.

This is because the females have egg cells which are larger than the male’s pollens. Due to this large size, female egg cells have cellular organelles like mitochondria, chloroplasts etc; whereas, the smaller male cells are devoid of any organelle.

The variegation in a leaf depends upon the chloroplasts present in it and since only the female cells contain chloroplasts. The appearance of the green color depends upon the chlorophyll in the chloroplasts.

Hence when green leaves were propagated, the progeny also had green leaves. This clearly proves that the leaf phenotype is based on the female parent’s chloroplasts and homoplasmic or heteroplasmic phenotypes are accordingly produced in the progeny due to the female parent.

The female plant cannot be homozygous in some cells or heterozygous in other cells and need not be only heterozygous; the phenotype of the gamete only differs according to the female parent.