Gregor Mendel observed that two plants with purple flowers could produce some offspring with white flowers and some offspring with purple flowers. Which of these choices did Mendel use to explain this result?

Heterozygosity

Explanation:

The correct term that could explain the phenomenon is heterozygosity.

In heterozygous condition, a gene is made up of two different alleles in which one would be dominant and the other would be recessive.

In heterozygous purple plants in which the alternate color is white, the white color is not expressed because its allele is in a recessive state. If two heterozygous plants are mated, the recessive allele in each plant would combine into some of the offspring, resulting in the production of white color progeny in addition to the dominant purple color progeny.

Let us assume that the purple color allele is P and the white color is p.

   Pp    x    Pp

 PP  Pp  Pp  pp

PP and Pp - purple color

pp - white color.