Biology.....?

Question

I would really appreciate if someone can help me out with answering this question thank you.

Hiking up a mountain, you notice a plant species that has one growth form at low elevations and a very different growth form at high elevations. You wonder if these represent two genetically distinct populations of this species, each adapted to the prevailing conditions, or if this species has developmental flexibility and can assume either growth form, depending on local conditions. What experiments could you design to test these two hypotheses?

Answer 1

There are a couple of ways this could be done. In one case you could collect the seeds of each type. You then take the low elevation seed and plant it at high elevation and vis versa you take the high elevation seed and plant it at low elevation. Then after the plant has sprouted you observe how it is growing. If the low-elevation plant grows looking like a high-elevation plant and visversa then that would indicate developmental flexibility. However if the low elevation plant still looks like a low elevation plant and vis versa that indicates genetically distinct populations.

A second way to perform the experiment is to collect seeds of both types and take them home and plant them together in your laboratory. If they grow up looking the same that would indicate developmental flexibility. If they grow up looking different from each other and still show characteristics of low and high elevation plants that would indicate genetically distinct populations.