What term describes the genetic makeup of an organism with respect to one or more traits?

The term that describes the genetic makeup of an organism with respect to one or more traits is genotype. The genotype includes the specific alleles that an individual possesses for a given trait, which can influence the observable characteristics or phenotype of that organism.

Understanding genotype is crucial as it provides insight into the inheritance patterns and variations within a species. For example, an organism may have a genotype that consists of two identical alleles for a trait (homozygous) or two different alleles (heterozygous), which affects how traits are expressed.

In contrast, phenotype refers to the observable characteristics resulting from the genotype and environmental influences, while alleles are the different forms of a gene that can exist for a particular trait. A karyotype provides a visual representation of the complete set of chromosomes in an organism but does not detail the genetic makeup for specific traits. Therefore, the correct understanding of what encompasses an organism's genetic traits is embodied in the concept of genotype.