Consider a gene with n alleles A₁, A₂, ..., A_n. How many distinct heterozygous genotypes are possible? A)n² B)n²/2 C)n(n -1) D)n(n - 1)/2 E)n(n + 1)/2

Question

Quizplus · Accepted Answer

For each allele, there are (n-1) other alleles that can pair with it to form a heterozygous genotype. However, in counting these pairs, each pair has been counted twice since the order of the alleles does not matter. Therefore, the total number of distinct heterozygous genotypes is (n-1)/2, which is option D.

Consider a Gene with N Alleles A1, A2

Consider a Gene with N Alleles A₁, A₂