Defining Phenotypic
Phenotypic relates to the description of Phenotype.
Phenotype is what an organism looks like as a result of its genotypes and its environmental interactions.
Understanding Phenotype
Phenotype is the physical manifestation of the organism. Anything that is part of the observable structure, function or behaviour of a living organism is called phenotype. Visible traits such as skin, hair, eye colour, height, size, shape, behaviour and other traits that can be described from observation are called phenotypic. Phenotype is determined by the individual or the organism’s genotype and genes, genetic variation and environmental influences.
Correlations of Phenotype and Genotype
Phenotypic and genotypic are the terms used to differentiate the genetic makeup of an organism and the way it expresses itself. Genotype means the existent or actual sets of genes that the organism obtains inside. When the genes are expressed and can be seen or observed , they are called phenotypes. It is then a fact that phenotypes depend on the genes they inherit. Yet, their representation is also influenced by the factors of its environment.
Basically, the type of traits that a phenotype can have is determined by a genotype. To illustrate further, to determine if an organism is susceptible to a certain disease its genotypic traits must be considered. Even so, the organism’s phenotypical aspect displays the observable aspects of this disease. Therefore, the symptoms associated to the specific appearance of the disease, the presence or even the absence of the disease is called phenotypic expression.
The complexity of the biological process is also determined by the extent of the environmental influences. Say for example, the weight of an obese child is almost completely determined by genotypes, but still, how long that child’s weight remains like that is more or less determined by environmental factors, like, diet and healthy lifestyle, etc.
Summary
It is fundamental to understand the heredity and development of an organism through the distinction between phenotype and genotype plus its environmental factors.
We’ve learned that an individual’s genetics and inherited traits or appearance such as the skin, eye and hair colour, structure or body built, decide the individual’s genotype. Genotype then is the genetic material of an organism or an individual. And the actual display of these traits is referred to as phenotype. For example, blonde hair is a phenotype because they are clear and visible traits and can be used to identify an individual.
We can also easily classify organisms based on their phenotypes. For instance when we see living organisms with feathers, we can easily tell that they are birds. We may not be able to determine what type of bird species these birds belong to until its genotype has been figured out, but then again we know that the organisms that we saw are birds because of their observable characteristic, the feathers.
We also learned that the environment where the living organisms live also plays a fundamental factor in its development. Again let’s use bird as an example, depending on its habitat, may it be in a lush forest where they can freely hunt for food or in a place where they couldn’t even find adequate means to feed, it affects their phenotypic expressions and characteristics.
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