Trait facts for kids

In biology, a trait or character is a special feature of a living thing. It's like a unique part of an organism's overall look and how it works, which biologists call its phenotype.

Every living thing, from tiny bacteria to huge elephants and even humans, has unique features. For example, an elephant has long tusks, a very large body, big ears, and huge molar teeth. These are all typical traits of elephants.

Biologists use the word trait to describe these features. A living thing is built in a certain way; this is its anatomy, or its body structure. How its body works is its physiology, or function. And how an animal acts is its behavior.

All these things – how a living thing is built, how its body works, and how it acts – are considered traits. Some basic traits are shared by all members of a group. This is why they are put into the same group! Other traits are only found in a few members of that group.

For example:

• It is an anatomical trait for giraffes to have very long necks. All giraffes have this trait.
• It is a physiological trait for birds to lay eggs to have their babies. All birds share this trait.
• It is part of the behavior of wolves to live and hunt together in packs. But cats usually live alone or in small family groups and hunt by themselves. These different ways of acting are also traits.

Traits can be passed down from parents to their children. This is called heritability. They are passed on through genes. A famous scientist named Gregor Mendel studied how traits like pea plant height or seed shape were passed down. All the traits of an organism together make up its phenotype.

What's the Difference: Trait or Character?

Sometimes, you might hear the words 'trait' and 'character' used a bit differently.

Are They the Same?

Some experts say that trait and character mean the same thing. For example, a genetics dictionary might say: "For trait, see character" and "Character: any feature of an organism you can see; same as phenotype, trait."

Trait as a Specific Type of Character

Other experts use both words, but in a slightly different way. They might say a trait is a specific version of an inherited character. It's how the genes show up in the phenotype.

This idea works well when we talk about Mendel's studies. In these cases:

• Eye colour is a character (the general feature).
  • Blue eye colour is a trait (a specific version of that feature).
  • Brown eye colour is another trait (another specific version).
• The appearance of a pea is a character.
  • Wrinkled pea is a trait.
  • Smooth pea is another trait.

However, not all features are inherited as simply as Mendel's pea traits. For example, an animal's weight is a character. But many genes affect weight, and so does the animal's environment (like the food it eats). Weight is also continuous (it can be any number, not just specific steps), and it's influenced by both genes and the environment.