All Free Agriculture MCQs with Answers

• A. Hull (1945)
• B. Bruce (1910)
• C. East (1908)
• D. Shull (1914)

Explanation: George H. Shull coined the term heterosis in 1914 while describing the increased vigor commonly seen in hybrids.

• A. Shull (1914)
• B. Davenport (1908)
• C. Bruce (1910)
• D. Davis (1927)

Explanation: Davenport first proposed the dominance hypothesis in 1908, explaining heterosis as the masking of deleterious recessive alleles by…

• A. Typsin inhibitor
• B. Goiterogens
• C. Both A & B
• D. Neither

Explanation: Soybean contains trypsin inhibitors, which reduce protein digestion, and goitrogenic factors that can interfere with thyroid function.

• A. Trytophan
• B. Arginine
• C. Lysine
• D. Methionine

Explanation: Methionine is commonly the limiting amino acid in green leafy vegetables, although their overall protein content is usually modest.

• A. All the above
• B. Protein
• C. Vitamin
• D. Oil

Explanation: Nutritional-quality breeding improves the composition or concentration of several food constituents, including oil quality, protein…

• A. Pearl millet
• B. Berseem
• C. Sorghum
• D. Lucem

Explanation: Sorghum can contain dhurrin, a cyanogenic glucoside that releases hydrogen cyanide and is toxic when present at high levels.

• A. Safflower
• B. Til
• C. Soybean
• D. Mustard

Explanation: Erucic acid is a long-chain fatty acid historically associated with mustard and rapeseed oils.

• A. Maize
• B. Barley
• C. Oenothera
• D. Sorghum

Explanation: Barbara McClintock discovered transposable elements, popularly called jumping genes, while studying maize kernels.

• A. Heritability (b.s)
• B. Co-heritability
• C. Genetic gain
• D. Genetic advance

Explanation: Co-heritability is the ratio of genotypic covariance to phenotypic covariance between two traits.

• A. Wright (1951)
• B. Cavalli (1952)
• C. Mather (1956)
• D. Sprague and Tatum (1942)

Explanation: Sprague and Tatum introduced combining ability analysis in 1942, separating general combining ability from specific combining ability.

• A. Thoday (1953)
• B. Hardy (1908)
• C. Salisbury (1940)
• D. Muller (1950)

Explanation: Thoday used the terms genetic flexibility and phenotypic flexibility to describe the capacity for genetic change and observable…

• A. Thoday (1960)
• B. Johannsen (1903)
• C. Allard (1957)
• D. Mather (1951)

Explanation: Johannsen developed the pure line theory in 1903 after showing that selection within a genetically uniform pure line cannot produce…

• A. Griffing (1956)
• B. Yates (1947)
• C. Smith (1936)
• D. Kempt Horne (1957)

Explanation: Smith proposed the discriminant function in 1936 to combine information from several traits into a selection criterion.

• A. Comstock and Moll (1963)
• B. Lemer (1954)
• C. Perkins (1971)
• D. Robinson (1948)

Explanation: Comstock and Moll are credited with distinguishing microenvironmental variation within a site from macroenvironmental variation among…

• A. Perkins (1968)
• B. Comstock and Robinson (1948)
• C. Hayman (1958)
• D. Jinks and Jones (1958)

Explanation: Comstock and Robinson proposed biparental mating in 1948 to generate segregating progeny from selected plants while retaining information…

• A. Gene interaction
• B. Dominance
• C. Peliotropy
• D. Selection differential

Explanation: Pleiotropy, spelled “pleiotropy,” causes one gene to influence two or more traits, producing genetic correlation between them.

• A. Cytoplasm
• B. 2D
• C. 5D + 5d
• D. 1D

Explanation: Resistance to Hessian fly in wheat is associated with genetic factors on chromosome 5D, represented here by 5D + 5d.

• A. Hays and limner (1950)
• B. Hull (1935)
• C. Allard (1955)
• D. Constock et al (1949)

Explanation: Comstock, Robinson and Harvey proposed reciprocal recurrent selection in 1949.

• A. Jones (1920)
• B. Richy (1920)
• C. Hays (1919)
• D. East (1920)

Explanation: Convergent improvement was proposed by Richey in 1920, a method that combines desirable traits from different breeding populations through…

• A. brim (1966)
• B. Jensen (1952)
• C. Jensen (1970)
• D. Russel (1978)

Explanation: Jensen developed the concept of diallel selective mating in 1970. Diallel mating involves crossing selected parents in a systematic…