Changes in phenotype in response to the environment, called phenotypic plasticity, are often very short lived and an organism will undergo many changes in its life span. These changes do not involve changes to the organisms DNA, and are not passed on to the offspring. The genes will however, determine how “flexible” the organism is, some traits are highly variable, plant height, number of flowers etc. Depending on the environment, some organisms will have more capacity to change and adapt, if this makes them more likely to survive than others of the same species with less flexible genes, then these flexible genes will be passed on to the offspring more times then the ones less able to adapt.
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