What term describes different versions of a gene?

Different versions of a gene are referred to as alleles. Alleles are variations of a particular gene that can lead to different traits in an organism. For instance, the gene that determines flower color in a plant may have an allele for red flowers and another for white flowers.

Genotype, on the other hand, refers to the specific genetic makeup of an organism, including all of the alleles it possesses for a given gene. Phenotype describes the observable physical or biochemical characteristics of an organism resulting from the interaction of its genotype with the environment. Homologs refer to chromosomes that have the same genes but may carry different alleles. Understanding these distinctions helps clarify the processes of inheritance and trait expression in biology.