multiple allelism


multiple allelism

The presence of multiple allelic forms of a single gene.

multiple allelism

the occurrence of more than two ALLELES of a gene, although only two may be present together in an individual at any one time. For example, the ABO BLOOD GROUP gene has at least six alleles. In practice it seems likely that all genes must possess many alternative alleles but these often remain undetected since no noticeable alteration of PHENOTYPE is observed.