Which term refers to physical characteristics that are studied in genetics?

Question

Which term refers to physical characteristics that are studied in genetics?

Answer 1

The answer you are looking for, I believe is phenotype. There is actually a lot more to it than just giving you a word. I have included the beginning of a web site so you can have a better understanding.

The Genotype/Phenotype Distinction

First published Fri 23 Jan, 2004

The distinction between phenotype and genotype is fundamental to the understanding of heredity and development of organisms. The genotype of an organism is the class to which that organism belongs as determined by the description of the actual physical material made up of DNA that was passed to the organism by its parents at the organism's conception. For sexually reproducing organisms that physical material consists of the DNA contributed to the fertilized egg by the sperm and egg of its two parents. For asexually reproducing organisms, for example bacteria, the inherited material is a direct copy of the DNA of its parent. The phenotype of an organism is the class to which that organism belongs as determined by the description of the physical and behavioral characteristics of the organism, for example its size and shape, its metabolic activities and its pattern of movement.

It is essential to distinguish the descriptors of the organism, its genotype and phenotype, from the material objects that are being described. The genotype is the descriptor of the genome which is the set of physical DNA molecules inherited from the organism's parents. The phenotype is the descriptor of the phenome, the manifest physical properties of the organism, its physiology, morphology and behavior.

The concepts of phenotype and genotype also demand the distinction between types and tokens. As the words “genotype” and “phenotype” suggest, these are types, sets of which any given organism and its genome are members, sets defined by their physical description. Any individual organism and its genome are members of those sets, tokens of those types.

Answer 2

Phenotype

Answer 3

Physical characteristics, I think, would be traits.  I don't know many specific terms used in genetics, but I know there are several. You can check this genetics glossary http://www.ornl.gov/sci/techresources/Hu... or the one I have as a source.

Answer 4

well i dont knoe yet but i apresiate

how someone before you, started your question to me by

catagorizing it as  An(d)thro(w)(aN)apology

the physical characteris sticks.

would be the answer to the question,but if you got a question like that from the public, then they dint really have one,

it is called heredity

Answer 5

phenotype

Where the genotype is the actual genetic code (ie presence of the particular gene - remember, all DNA does is code for protein synthesis) for a trait, the phenotype is the quantitative expression of the characteristic in question (to borrow from mendels peas:  white blossoms or red, wrinkled or smooth etc.)  This is frequently used in breeding experiments like Mendel's peas and most frequently in the classroom, fruit flies (drosophila lots about that here http://ceolas.org/VL/fly/ ).