Q.What are multiple alleles?

Step 1. An ordinary Mendelian gene, like the pea's tall/dwarf gene, has just two alternative forms (alleles) in the population - a simple dominant/recessive pair.

Step 2. Multiple alleles describes a gene that instead has three or more alternative allelic forms present across the population as a whole, even though the gene still occupies a single locus.

Step 3. The human ABO blood-group gene is the standard example: the I gene has three alleles, IA, IB and i, and different combinations of these three produce the A, B, AB and O blood types - IA and IB are codominant with each other, while both are dominant to i. …

Define multiple alleles as population-level allelic diversity beyond t …

• Confusing multiple alleles (many forms of one gene across a population) with polygenic inheritance (many different genes affecting one trait). …