Question

A pleiotropic gene is one which :

• A. affects more than one character
• B. affects one character
• C. supplements the effect of another gene
• D. requires another gene for expression

Answer 1

Answer: (A)

The ability of a gene to produce more than one phenotype in an organism is called Pleoitrophy and the genes are called Pleiotripic genes. It is not essential that the traits are equally influenced. Sometimes, the effect of the gene is more evident in case of one trait and less evident in case of another trait.
Example, gene controlling metabolism of phenylalanine