Question

An organism possesses one copy of each allele type for a given gene. It is said to be __________.

Answer 1

Answer:

Heterozygous for the gene

Explanation:

Alleles are the possible alternative forms of a gene. An organism having two identical alleles of a gene is said to be homozygous for that gene. On the other hand, an organism having two dissimilar alleles for a gene is heterozygous for that gene.

For example, let's suppose that I^A and I^B are the two alleles for ABO blood type in humans. Here, an individual with one copy of I^A and one copy of I^B would be heterozygous for ABO blood type. On the other hand, genotypes I^AI^A and I^BI^B are homozygous for the ABO blood type gene.