Which of the following is considered the basic building block of heredity in living organisms?

• A. Gene
• B. Protein
• C. Chromosome
• D. Nucleotide

Answer: (A)

Verified step by step guidance

1. Understand that heredity refers to the transmission of genetic information from parents to offspring.
2. Recall that the basic unit responsible for carrying hereditary information is a segment of DNA known as a gene.
3. Recognize that proteins are the products encoded by genes, but they themselves are not the basic hereditary units.
4. Know that chromosomes are structures made up of DNA and proteins that contain many genes, but chromosomes are not the smallest unit of heredity.
5. Identify nucleotides as the building blocks of DNA and RNA, but the functional unit of heredity is the gene, which is a sequence of nucleotides.