Crawfish are shelled organisms that live in shallow freshwater rivers. They can have antennae of different lengths. Two parents with medium length antennae have offspring. One of their offspring has short antennae, and one has long antennae. How did the offspring end up with traits that are different from the traits of their parents? How did the gene combinations result in these traits?

The phenotype of antenna in crawfish depends on the protein amount in the antenna length. The offspring have different phenotype than their parent because of the amount of protein translated from each parent gene is determining in this.

The gene determines the amount of protein to be present in the antenna to determine its length.

Explanation:

Data given:

Two crawfish parent = medium length antennae, genotyoe Ll

One offspring = short antenna, genotype ll

one offspring = long antennae, genotype LL

The traits in offspring is shown as:

       L    l

L   LL    Ll

l   Ll     ll

The proportion of allele present in the gene determined the length of the antenna in crawfish.

The difference in length of the antenna in crawfish is due to the amount of protein for the phenotype present in the individual. The amount of protein to be expressed in the crawfish is given by both the parents. The tendency of protein expresed define the phenotype of antenna length.