What do we call an individual who carries one recessive allele but usually shows the dominant trait?

• A. Carrier
• B. Pedigree
• C. Autosomal
• D. Sex-linked trait

Answer: (A)

Carrier status for a recessive allele means having one dominant and one recessive allele for a gene. The dominant allele masks the recessive one, so the person typically shows the dominant trait. But the recessive allele is still present and can be passed to offspring, which is why carriers are important in predicting inheritance of recessive conditions. This differs from a pedigree, which is simply a diagram of family relationships showing how traits are inherited; autosomal refers to the location of the gene on a non-sex chromosome, and sex-linked traits involve genes on the sex chromosomes and their inheritance patterns.