Adaptive features of prawn
Answers
Colour adoption is present in the prawn. When the prawn is exposed to dark or light coloured substrate, it triggers a strong colour response by the expansion or contraction of the colouration structure which is present in the prawn hypodermis. But inspite of being colour triggered by the colouration structure the total level of the present carotenoids pigment are not modified in the prawns.
While prawn is exposed to dark or light coloured substrates are known to generate a strong colour adaptation in response by expansion or contraction of the colour structures in the prawn hypodermis part of its body.
In spite of the difference in colour triggered due to responding for the purpose of adaptation related response, total levels of the predominant colour forming pigment, astaxanthin, are not changed, which suggest that another mechanism is responsible for this phenomenon.
Astaxanthin attached to a specific protein termed as a crustacean (CRCN), and it is the correlation between the quantities present in each of these compounds that produce the diverse range of colours observed in crustacean shells.