Genetic Variety

Genetic variety is the different genes and alleles that a species could get. Our Reebob’s are a perfect example to demonstrate this. We used Reebob's to mate them to see the different genotypes and phenotypes they would get. For example, in the beginning my bug had an all green genotype and it looked like this.









Then after mating a few times the bug had a genotype that had 4 different colors and looked different from the first one.

This is all from something called crossing over. Crossing over happens during the process of meiosis. It gives the sperm or egg cell part of the mother's genes and part of the father's genes, this way the offspring will be a mix of both of the parents. This is how my Reebob went from all green to green, purple, yellow and black. Each time my Reebob mated it got another Reebob's genes. This made the new Reebob unique because even if the phenotype is the same as another bug, it is VERY unlikely that they will have the same genotype. This is because even if the alleles are the same to give you the same phenotype as someone, it is even more unlikely for them to have the same colors as you are. That is why they call it genetic variety because there is a huge variety of genetics that are possible for the new Reebob to get. Using Reebob's gave me a clearer understanding of how genetic variety works with things like phenotypes, genotypes and crossing over.