In a plant with red flower color, which alleles will be carried by the gametes if the plant is heterozygous?

In a heterozygous plant, two different alleles are present for a given trait. For flower color in this case, the alleles are represented as "R" for red and "r" for another color (commonly white). Since the plant is heterozygous, it possesses one dominant allele (R) and one recessive allele (r).

When gametes are formed through the process of meiosis, each gamete receives only one allele from each pair of alleles. Therefore, in this heterozygous plant, the gametes will carry either the dominant allele (R) or the recessive allele (r). This results in gametes containing the alleles R and r. Thus, the correct answer identifies the alleles that the gametes will carry.

This is foundational to understanding inheritance patterns in plants, as it explains how traits can be passed on to the next generation through gametes during fertilization, potentially resulting in offspring that may express different phenotypes based on the combinations of alleles they inherit.