How do store-bought bananas grow without seeds?
Show answer & explanation
Answer: Three chromosome sets make them sterile; grown from cuttings
Three chromosome sets make them sterile; grown from cuttings ✓ — Correct! Commercial bananas are triploids—three sets of chromosomes instead of the normal two. This mismatch means they can't reproduce properly, so no seeds form. Ancient humans found these seedless mutants and cultivated them. Since they can't reproduce sexually, farmers grow them from root stem cuttings. Every banana you buy is a clone of bananas grown thousands of years ago!
Scientists genetically modified them to remove all seeds — Wrong. Commercial bananas existed long before genetic modification was invented. Seedless bananas arose naturally as mutations thousands of years ago. Humans simply selected and propagated them because they were more pleasant to eat than the seedy wild varieties.
The seeds are too small to see but still grow new plants — Wrong. Commercial bananas truly have no seeds at all, not even tiny ones. Wild bananas have large, hard seeds that make them difficult to eat. Commercial varieties are sterile triploids that physically cannot produce seeds.