How many different types of gametes can a particular diploid organism that is heterozygous for three unlinked genes produce?

• A. 4
• B. 6
• C. 8
• D. 10

Answer: (C)

To determine how many different types of gametes a diploid organism that is heterozygous for three unlinked genes can produce, it's important to apply the principles of Mendelian genetics, specifically focusing on independent assortment.

For each gene, if the organism is heterozygous (for example, AaBbCc for three different genes A, B, and C), it can produce two types of alleles for each gene: one from each parent. This means that for each gene, the organism can contribute either allele to its gametes.

Since the genes are unlinked, we can use the formula for calculating the number of different gametes:

Number of different gametes = 2^n

where ( n ) is the number of heterozygous gene pairs. In this case, the organism has three heterozygous genes (A, B, C), so:

n = 3

Applying the formula:

Number of different gametes = 2^3 = 8

This means that the organism can produce eight different combinations of alleles in its gametes, such as ABC, ABc, AbC, Abc, aBC, aBc, abC, and abc. Each combination represents a unique