An allele is a variant form of a gene. When we say that a gene has two (or more) alleles, we don’t mean that a gene contains two or more alleles, but that the gene exists in several variant forms. Sort of like how carbon-12, carbon-13 and carbon-14 are different isotopes of the same element. As far as I understand, calling the mutated allele a “mutated copy of the gene” is correct.
(I’m fairly certain of this, but if my understanding is wrong I’d welcome the correction of someone more knowledgeable.)
The idea was that we have chromosome pairs, each will have the same set of genes, but the gene on each chromosome can vary but are still the same “gene”. So the label as allele (or mutation—not quite sure where one draws the line between mutation and allele) seems a bit more clear to me.
An allele is a variant form of a gene. When we say that a gene has two (or more) alleles, we don’t mean that a gene contains two or more alleles, but that the gene exists in several variant forms. Sort of like how carbon-12, carbon-13 and carbon-14 are different isotopes of the same element. As far as I understand, calling the mutated allele a “mutated copy of the gene” is correct.
(I’m fairly certain of this, but if my understanding is wrong I’d welcome the correction of someone more knowledgeable.)
Yes, you state that much better than I did.
The idea was that we have chromosome pairs, each will have the same set of genes, but the gene on each chromosome can vary but are still the same “gene”. So the label as allele (or mutation—not quite sure where one draws the line between mutation and allele) seems a bit more clear to me.