colours of plants and human skin.

mollykins | 08:01 Fri 08th May 2009 | Science

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If you mix a white and red flowered pea plant together you normally get white if not you get red. (i understand the scienceyness of this). But you don't get pink unless its a mutant.

But why do humans go an inbetweeny colour of the two parents? apart from mutations that is.

Or do you get plants that go an inbetween colour of the parents? If yes then how come pea plants don't?

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wildwood

The white/red pea (mendel's law) experiment you mention employes a recessive genetic mutation.

The dark human skin is not a mutation. It is an adaptation and uses a dark pigment, melanin, to colour the skin and so protect the skin from the sun. This melanin can be present in various intensities to give more/less protection, so it stands to reason that the progeny of a dark skin/light skin union produces a medium dark skinned person.

Many humans also have mutations like the pea's 'show or no show' one.
The eye colour for one..... Discounting many variations, the blue eye is recessive to the [normal] brown colour. Two brown eyed parent can still produce a blue eyed child as long as both carry the blue gene hidden (hence the recessive tag).

mollykins

Question Author

yes i was refering to medles experiment. Thanks.

But i thought a gene controlled your skin colour. And mutations were things like albinos. so if it is a gene then why isn't it the same as the pea plants.

Anyway don;t many plants produce middle-colored ofspring. Can't you cross a red and blue geranium to make purple. But the purpleones ar rare because the red and blue ones don't normaly flower at the same time.