NEET 2013 Botany Taxonomy MCQ Question

🌱 NEET Explanation — Taxonomic Categories

Question: The common characteristics between tomato and potato will be maximum at the level of their:

✅ Correct Answer: Genus

• 🍅 Tomato → Solanum lycopersicum
• 🥔 Potato → Solanum tuberosum
• Both belong to the same genus: Solanum
• But they are different species.

Therefore, their common characteristics are maximum at the genus level.

🔍 Why other options are incorrect?

🔴 Family — Solanaceae Both belong to the same family, but family is a higher taxonomic category than genus. Hence, organisms sharing the same family generally have fewer common characteristics than those sharing the same genus.

🔴 Order — Solanales Order is still higher than family. It contains several families, so the common characteristics are even fewer.

🔴 Division Division is a much higher category and includes organisms with very broad similarities. Therefore, it cannot have the maximum common characteristics between tomato and potato.

🟢 Genus — Solanum → Correct They belong to the same genus but different species, so among the given categories, maximum similarities occur at the genus level.

🧠 NEET Quick Trick

Same Genus = Maximum similarity among different species

🍅 Tomato → Solanum 🥔 Potato → Solanum

➡️ Same Genus → Solanum → ✅ Answer: Genus

NCERT concept: As we move from species → genus → family → order → class → phylum/division → kingdom, the number of common characteristics decreases.