Q. 14.  Even if a character shows multiple allelism, an individual will only have two alleles for that character. Why?


Multiple alleles are the multiple forms of gene which occur on the same gene locus but distributed in different organisms in the gene pool with an organism, which carries only two alleles and the gamete have only one allele.

Despite multiple allelism, an individual will have only two alleles because an individual develops from a zygote which is the result of a fusion of sperm (carrying father set of (n) haploid chromosomes) and an egg (carrying mother set of haploid chromosomes).

Sperm and an egg have only one gene (allele) for each trait. A zygote when becomes diploid, have two alleles for each trait. It is the maximum number of alleles an individual can have, e.g., genes of blood groups.