Does the environment exert an influence on the phenotype?
A phenotype may be altered (compared to the original situation conditioned by its genotype) by nongenetic means. Examples: some hormones may cease to be secreted due to diseases but the genes that determine their secretion remain intact; a person can go to a hairdresser and change the color of his/her hair; plastic surgery can be performed to alter facial features of an individual; colored contact lenses may be worn; a plant can grow beyond its genetically conditioned size by application of phytohormones. Revealing cases of environmental influence on phenotypes are observed in monozygotic twins that have grown in different places. Generally these twins present very distinct phenotypical features due to the environmental and cultural differences of the places where they lived and to their different individual experiences in life. (Biologically programmed phenotypical changes, like nonpathological changes of the skin color caused by sunlight exposure, tanning, or the variation of the color of some flowers according to the pH of the soil cannot be considered independent from the genotype. Actually these changes are planned by the genotype as natural adaptations to environmental changes.)
