What encompasses the entire hereditary information of an organism found in its genes?

The term that encompasses the entire hereditary information of an organism found in its genes is the genome. The genome is a complete set of DNA, including all of its genes, and it represents the total genetic blueprint of an organism, providing the necessary instructions for growth, development, functioning, and reproduction.

Understanding this, chromosomes are structures within cells that organize and package the DNA, but they do not represent the entirety of genetic information on their own. The phenotype refers to the physical and biochemical characteristics of an organism, which result from the interaction of its genotype with the environment, rather than the genetic material itself. The proteome, on the other hand, refers to the entire set of proteins produced or modified by an organism, which is a product of the expressed genes but does not include the entirety of hereditary information. Thus, the genome is the most comprehensive term that includes all hereditary information encoded within an organism's genetic material.