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Acquired traits are synonymous with acquired characteristics. They are not passed on to offspring through reproduction. The changes that constitute acquired characteristics can have many manifestations and degrees of visibility, but they all have one thing in common. They change a facet of a living organism's function or structure after birth.
Inherited traits are controlled by genes and the complete set of genes within an organism's genome is called its genotype. [2] The complete set of observable traits of the structure and behavior of an organism is called its phenotype. These traits arise from the interaction of the organism's genotype with the environment. [3]
Rating traits involve a group of observers that scrutinize the behavioural traits of an individual animal. Observers are typically given a list of characters and/or descriptions to use as a reference for interpreting animal behaviour then use the list to rate the behaviours. [11] The rating method uses observers and data recording instruments. [1]
[2] [3] [4] There is a genetic difference between domestic and wild populations. There is also a genetic difference between the domestication traits that researchers believe to have been essential at the early stages of domestication, and the improvement traits that have appeared since the split between wild and domestic populations.
The adaptive traits may be structural, behavioural or physiological. Structural adaptations are physical features of an organism, such as shape, body covering, armament, and internal organization. Behavioural adaptations are inherited systems of behaviour, whether inherited in detail as instincts, or as a neuropsychological capacity for learning.
These traits are polygenic. Significant genetic variants are present for most of the behavioral traits. There is a consistency in detection of genetic variants and genomic association for traits derived from pedigree. [3] Personality trait research has been conducted both for humans and non-human animals like dogs.
These features normally disappear in later development, but it may not happen if the animal has an atavism. [1] [2] In biology, an atavism is a modification of a biological structure whereby an ancestral genetic trait reappears after having been lost through evolutionary change in previous generations. [3]
Culture, which was once thought of as a uniquely human trait, is now firmly established as a common trait among animals and is not merely a set of related behaviors passed on by genetic transmission as some have argued. Genetic transmission, like cultural transmission, is a means of passing behavioral traits from one individual to another.