Genes in one organism can have extended phenotypic effects on the body of another organism. Caddis houses are an example.
But, in more modest ways, nature teems with animals and plants that manipulate others of the same or of different species. In all cases in which natural selection has favoured genes for manipulation, it is legitimate to speak of those same genes as having (extended phenotypic) effects on the body of the manipulated organism. It doesn't matter in which body a gene physically sits. The target of its manipulation may be the same body or a different one. Natural selection favours those genes that manipulate the world to ensure their own propagation.
An animals behaviour tends to maximize the survival of the genes 'for' that behaviour, whether or not those genes happen to be in the body of the particular animal performing it.
Status:: #wiki/notes/mature
Plantations:: Biology
References:: The Selfish Gene