Genotype and phenotype are two fundamental terms in the science of genetics.

The two terms are

often used at the same time to describe the same organism, but there is a difference between
genotype and phenotype:

 An organism’s genotype is the set of genes in its DNA responsible for a particular trait.
 An organism’s phenotype is the physical expression of those genes.

For example, two mice that look virtually identical could have different genotypes. But if they
have visibly different traits - say, one has white fur and the other has black fur - then they have
different phenotypes.

Genotype Explained
How does genotype affect phenotype? Simple. Genotype is the collection of genes responsible
for the various genetic traits of a given organism. Genotype refers specifically to the genes, not
the traits; that is, the raw information in an organism’s DNA.

Genotype is determined by the makeup of alleles, pairs of genes responsible for particular traits.
An allele can be made up of two dominant genes, a dominant and a recessive gene, or two
recessive genes. The combination of the two, and which one is dominant, determines what trait
the allele will express.

Genotype simply means what alleles are carried in a particular organism’s DNA. It can’t be
determined by simple observation; it requires biological testing. Genotype is inherited from an
organism’s parents and expresses all of the genetic information about it.

Genotype Examples
It’s hard to provide concrete examples of genotype. The term just means “the genes a particular
organism has.” Any example of a genotype would just be a chart of a particular living thing’s
chromosomes, or DNA molecules responsible for various genetic traits. However, having certain
genes does have observable results.

For example, if you met someone with albinism you would know they most likely have a
mutated TYR gene, because that’s the most common cause of albinism. That mutated TYR gene
is part of their genotype. Albinism is part of their phenotype.

Or suppose you have brown eyes. The visible eye color is your phenotype, but it tells us nothing
about your genotype. Multiple different genes affect eye color in humans, and any of them could
manifest dominant or recessive traits in your phenotype - that is, the unique shade of brown in
your eyes.

Phenotype Explained
Phenotype is what you see - the visible or observable expression of the results of genes,
combined with the environmental influence on an organism's appearance or behavior. Everything
from the shape of a bird’s wing to the song of a humpback whale can be considered part of the
phenotype: observable aspects of that animal that are determined, at least in part, by its genes.

Phenotype Examples
Phenotype means “concrete results of an organism’s genotype.” Phenotype, therefore, is
observable by nature. Every trait determined by a gene, even partially, is part of its phenotype.
Just a few of the countless examples of the phenotypes of living things follow.

 Eye color
 Hair color
 Height
 Sound of your voice
 Certain types of disease
 Size of a bird's beak
 Length of a fox's tail
 Color of the stripes on a cat
 Size and shape of the spots on a dog's back
 An individual's shoe size