A hybrid organism is best described as

• A. Heterozygous
• B. Homozygous
• C. Having multiple alleles
• D. Asexual reproduction

Answer: (A)

A hybrid organism carries two different alleles for a gene, one inherited from each parent, so its genotype for that trait is heterozygous. This means the two alleles are not the same (for example, Tt rather than TT or tt). Hybrids often show traits influenced by dominance, where one allele can mask the other, but the key idea is having contrasting alleles for the same gene. This differs from being homozygous, where both alleles are the same, and from having multiple alleles in a population, which describes the variety of options that can exist for a gene, not the genotype of a single individual. Asexual reproduction, on the other hand, does not involve combining genetic material from two parents, so it does not inherently produce a hybrid genotype.