A child with brown eyes inherited a brown-eyed gene from one parent and a blue-eyed gene from the other parent. Which of these describes the child’s genetic makeup for eye color? (Select all that apply.)

Question

homozygous

hybrid

recessive

heterozygous

Answer 1

The child's genetic makeup for eye color can be described as:

• hybrid: This term indicates that the child has two different alleles for eye color (one brown and one blue).

• heterozygous: This also indicates that the child has two different alleles for the eye color gene (one brown allele and one blue allele).

The terms homozygous and recessive do not apply in this case:

• Homozygous refers to having two identical alleles for a trait, which is not the case here.
• Recessive refers to an allele that does not manifest in the phenotype in the presence of a dominant allele; while blue is recessive, the child’s overall genetic makeup is not described solely by this term.

So, the applicable terms for the child’s genetic makeup are hybrid and heterozygous.