Question

One advantage of using bacteria and viruses for genetic study is the fact that they have haploid genomes. Explain why a haploid genome facilitates genetic analysis.

Answer 1

In haploid organisms, there is only one copy of every gene. So, there will be one allele for every gene. Hence, we can easily study the function of one allele in the bacteria.

On the other hand, diploid organisms have two alleles for every gene. One of them will be dominant and one will be recessive. So, we have to be very careful about the functioning of each allele. We need to study each allele separately. This problem is not there in the haploid organisms. And we can study the effect of one gene (one allele) on the organism.

Please rate high.