Final answer:
(A) Carbon
The chiral center in an alkane is the carbon atom with four different atoms or groups attached. Hydrogen and oxygen do not typically serve as chiral centers in alkanes, and priority is assigned by atomic number, with hydrogen normally being the lowest due to it usually being terminal.
Step-by-step explanation:
The atom that serves as a chiral center in an alkane is carbon (C).
A chiral center is a carbon atom that has four different atoms or groups attached to it. This is necessary for a molecule to have non-superimposable mirror images, or enantiomers.
Neither hydrogen (H) nor oxygen (O) can serve as chiral centers in alkanes as hydrogen is typically terminal, and oxygen atoms usually do not form four different bonds in alkanes. Nitrogen (N) can be a chiral center in different kinds of organic compounds, but not typically in alkanes.
When assigning priority based on the atomic number of atoms attached to the chiral center, one should consider the substituents and their connections to the chiral carbon.
The highest priority (number 1) is given to the substituent bonded through the atom with the highest atomic number, and the lowest priority (number 4) is typically assigned to hydrogen since it has the lowest atomic number and is often terminal. If ties occur between substituents, then one must look further down the chain to break the tie based on atomic numbers two bonds away.