Allele

An allele is any one of a number of alternative forms of the same gene occupying a given locus (position) on a chromosome. An example is the blossom color of some flowers. Organisms with diploid (having two copies of each chromosome) [somatic cells]? are either homozygote (they have the same allele on both homologous chromosomes) or heterozygote (they have different alleles on both homologous chromosomes). Within most heterozygotes, one of the alleles is dominant (only the trait of the dominant allele shows).