Observe: Hold your cursor over one of the insects. The two rod-like structures under Genotype on the right side of the Gizmo represent chromosomes. The three letters next to each chromosome represent alleles. Which alleles does the insect have

Complete question:

Question: Where does variation in a population come from?

1. Observe: Hold your cursor over one of the insects. The two rod-like structures under  the Genotype on the right side of the Gizmo represents chromosomes. The three letters next to  each chromosome represent alleles.

Which alleles does the insect have? ____________________________________________

The alleles carried on an organism’s chromosomes make up the organism’s genotype

Explanation:

You will see that each chromatid has three alleles. Next to each allele, you will see which version of the gene is (W). In this particular example, all the alleles are the same, so all of them express white. Both chromatids carry only W alleles.

Think about alleles as an alternative form of the gene. So on this chromosome, we have only three genes but eight possible alternatives, which will be coding for white, red, blue, green, cyan, magenta, yellow, or black. The color expression will depend on the individual´s genotype.

In this case, the selected insect carries only the W allele, and its phenotype is white. The genotype of this insect is WWW WWW.

Note: If you click on any other insect, you will find the same genotype for all of them.

However, consider that depending on the environmental conditions and the selective pressures, these alleles might change. Individuals might carry other alleles that code for another color instead of having only W alleles.

You will find the image in the attached files.