Florida Biology EOC Practice Test 2025 – 400 Free Practice Questions to Pass the Exam

The correct understanding of a phenotype is that it refers to the physical expression of an organism's genes. This encompasses all observable characteristics, such as traits like height, eye color, and even behavior. These traits result from the interaction between an organism's genetic makeup and its environment.

While the genetic makeup, or genotype, is essential to determining what traits an organism could express, it is through the phenotype that these traits manifest. Therefore, the emphasis on physical expression highlights the phenotype as a bridge between genetics and observable traits.

The other options involve concepts that do not accurately define a phenotype. The genetic makeup pertains specifically to the set of genes that an organism carries, the transcription process relates to how genes are expressed and translated into proteins, and cell division refers to the process by which cells replicate, none of which define phenotype in terms of observable characteristics.