Inherited factors that are transmitted in an organism from generation to generation are called its:

• A. Homozygote.
• B. Heterozygote.
• C. Genotype.
• D. Phenotype.

Answer: (C)

Inherited factors transmitted from one generation to the next are the organism's genotype—the genetic makeup passed from parents. The genotype specifies which alleles an organism carries at its genes, such as AA, Aa, or aa at a given locus. Those alleles determine potential traits and can be homozygous or heterozygous at a gene, but describing the inherited material as genotype emphasizes the genetic information itself, not the outward traits. The phenotype, by contrast, is the observable characteristics resulting from the genotype interacting with the environment. So genotype is the best fit because it denotes the hereditary genetic material passed down across generations. The other terms describe either the state at a specific gene (homozygous or heterozygous) or the outward expression (phenotype).