text: breakdown the phenotype and genotype?   the phenotype of an individual organism is either its total physical appearance and constitution or a specific manifestation of a trait, such as size, eye color, or behavior that varies between individuals. phenotype is determined to some extent by genotype, or by the identity of the alleles that an individual carries at one or more positions on the chromosomes.  the genotype is the specific genetic makeup (the specific genome) of an individual, in the form of dna. together with the environmental variation that influences the individual, it codes for the phenotype of that individual. non-hereditary mutations are not classically understood as representing the individuals' genotype. hence, scientists and doctors sometimes talk for example about the (geno)type of a particular cancer, thus separating the disease from the diseased.