The phenomenon wherein a single gene has more than one phenotypic effect is known as? (IBPS AFO 2012)

✅Explanation: Pleiotropism is a genetic phenomenon in which a single gene can have multiple phenotypic effects or influence several seemingly unrelated traits or characteristics. When a gene exhibits pleiotropy, it means that alterations or mutations in that gene can lead to a range of effects on different aspects of an organism's phenotype.

📌Other Options Explanations:

– Hypostasis: This occurs when the expression of one gene masks the expression of another gene at a different locus.

– Epistasis: This refers to the interaction between genes where one gene's expression modifies or suppresses the effect of another gene.

– Duplicate genes: These are two or more genes that have similar functions due to gene duplication events.

🔑Key Points:

– The phenomenon in which a single gene may express more than one phenotypic effect is called pleiotropy.

– Pleiotropy is a genetic condition when a single gene affects two or more distinct phenotypic characteristics or traits, with a single gene affecting multiple traits.

– Multiple births Polygeny is a type of inheritance when the phenotype of a trait is influenced by more than one gene.

Additional Information

– Incomplete dominance is a form of gene interaction in which both alleles of a gene at a locus are partially expressed, often resulting in an intermediate or distinct phenotype. It is also known as partial dominance.

– Multiple alleles occur when more than two gene variants are present for the same locus.

– For example, one allele of a gene causing height may be tall, while the other allele may cause dwarfism.

– It simply indicates that three or more alleles are present in the population for a given gene.

– Codominance, as it relates to genetics, refers to a type of inheritance in which two versions (alleles) of the same gene are expressed differently to produce different traits in an individual.