- Johannsen developed the pure line theory while working with princess beans in 1901. He established 19 pure lines through individual plant selection and followed with selection among the pure lines. - Johannsen concluded that continuous inbreeding leads to homozygosity, variation within a pure line is due to environment only, and selection within a pure line is not effective because all plants have the same genotype. - A pure line is the progeny of a single homozygous, self-pollinated plant. Pure line selection involves evaluating individual plant progeny from a self-pollinated crop to release the best as a pure line variety.