Question

in a group of bitter melon plants, some individuals have dark brown seeds and others have light brown seeds. in this group, the gene for the seed color trait has two alleles. the allele d is for dark brown seeds, and the allele d is for light brown seeds. a certain bitter melon plant from this group has dark brown seeds. this plant has one allele for dark brown seeds and one allele for light brown seeds. based on this information, click the blue words to correct any errors in the text. this bitter melon plant is homozygous for the seed color gene. this bitter melon plants phenotype for the seed color trait is light brown seeds. this bitter melon plants genotype for the seed color gene is dd.

Explanation:

• Homozygous: A plant is homozygous when it has two identical alleles for a gene. Since this plant has two different alleles (\(D\) and \(d\)), it is heterozygous.
• Phenotype (light - brown seeds): The allele \(D\) (dark - brown seeds) is dominant over \(d\) (light - brown seeds). When an organism has a dominant and a recessive allele (\(Dd\)), the dominant allele determines the phenotype. So the phenotype should be dark - brown seeds.
• Genotype (\(Dd\)): This is correct as the plant has one allele for dark - brown seeds (\(D\)) and one for light - brown seeds (\(d\)).

Answer:

• Change "homozygous" to "heterozygous".
• Change "light brown seeds" to "dark brown seeds".
• "This bitter melon plant’s genotype for the seed color gene is \(Dd\)" is correct.