If an organism has different alleles for a particular trait, it is classified as?

An organism is classified as heterozygous when it possesses two different alleles for a particular trait. Alleles are alternative forms of a gene, and when an individual inherits one allele from each parent that differ from each other, the organism is termed heterozygous for that trait. For example, if a gene has alleles A and a, an individual with the genotype Aa is considered heterozygous.

This classification is significant in genetics because heterozygous individuals often display a dominant phenotype if one of the alleles is dominant. Understanding whether an organism is heterozygous or homozygous (having identical alleles) is crucial for predicting inheritance patterns in offspring and understanding genetic variation within a population.

The other classifications, such as polygenic and monogenic, refer to the number of genes influencing a trait rather than the alleles of a single gene. Polygenic traits are influenced by multiple genes, while monogenic traits are influenced by a single gene. Thus, these terms do not apply to the definition of having different alleles.