What are the possible combinations of alleles?
Then, what is the combination of alleles?
Within an individual organism, the specific combination of alleles for a gene is known as the genotype of the organism, and (as mentioned above) the physical trait associated with that genotype is called the phenotype of the organism.
A | B |
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Punnett square | a chart that shows all the possible combinations of alleles that can result from a genetic cross |
phenotype | an organism's physical appearance or visible traits |
genotype | an organsim's genetic makeup, or allele combination |
homozygous | having 2 identical alleles for a trait |
Likewise, how many combinations of alleles are possible in human gametes?
There are 8,324,608 possible combinations of 23 chromosome pairs. As a result, two gametes virtually never have exactly the same combination of chromosomes. Each chromosome contains dozens to thousands of different genes.
If you know the haploid number for an organism, you can calculate the number of possible combinations in the gametes. The possible combinations are equal to 2n, where n is the haploid number. For the organism in Figure 9-18, n = 2, so the number of chromosome combinations is 22, or 4.