Student Blog Post Assignment #7

by Ryan Keeney

                We are experimenting with the cultivar of Brassica Oleracea known as kohlrabi, which produces a purple vegetable very similar to a cabbage. The offspring of these plants would probably have very similar traits to their parents, as these traits were inherited by the offspring through genes passed down from each of its parents. The offspring will not look exactly like the parent plant, due to the fact that genetic crossover occurs during gamete production, as well as the fact that it inherits half of its DNA from each parent. Although all of the plants planted in the garden are the same species, the vegetables produced are different because of slight variations in which genes in the plant are turned on and off to produce a certain vegetable. All of these forms may have arisen from selective breeding by farmers in order to produce different vegetables, or they may have arisen from the need to adapt to their individual environments.

Wild-type Brassica oleracea