Common Fruit Fly Lab Report

Introduction: The intention of this lab was to gain a better understanding of Mendelian genetics and inheritance patterns of the drosophila fruit fly. This was tasked through inspecting phenotypes present in the dihybrid crosses performed on the flies. An experimental virtual fly lab assignment was also used to analyze the inheritance patterns. Specifically, the purpose of our drosophila crosses is to establish which phenotypes are dominant/recessive, if the traits are inherited through autosome or sex chromosomes and whether independent assortment or linkage is responsible for the expressed traits.

Drosophila Melanogaster, commonly known as fruit flies, are highly important model organisms in pertaining to biological research. The logic behind their recurrent use is due to their: easy culture in the laboratory, brief generation time, and ability to produce large numbers of offspring. In this report, we created isolated virgin D. Melanogaster from the original three populations we were given and then created crosses between them. Upon observation, we noticed an unusual mutant that arose from two of the three created crosses. We suspected that this genetic mutation had previously been discovered and named.

The motivation of this lab report is to use Mendel’s Laws of Inheritance to analyze and predict the genotypes and phenotypes of an offspring generation (F2) after knowing the genotypes and phenotypes of the parent generation (F1). The hypothesis for this experiment is that the mode of inheritance for the shaven bristle allele in flies is autosomal recessive in both male and female flies.

Genes can either be sex-linked or autosomal. If a gene appears mostly in one sex chances are the gene is sex-linked and if it appears frequently in both sexes it is most likely autosomal. Using Drosophila melanogaster, also known as the fruit fly, we will determine whether the gene is sex-linked or autosomal. Drosophila melanogasters have a relatively short life span and are an excellent organism for genetic studies because it has simple food requirements, occupies little space, is hardy, completes its life cycle in about 12 days at room temperature, produces large numbers of offspring, can be immobilized readily for examination and

Fruit Fly experiment was conducted by using different techniques. One of the main things was to examine the fruit flies and identify the difference between females and males, identify their mutation if they were wild type, white eye, vestigial or white and vestigial combined together. These Fruit flies were kept in the incubator at 25°C for about 6 days. The main goal for this experiment was to observe the principles of Mendelian genetics.

Two sepia virgin drosophila females and five, dumpy drosophila are put in a vial containing agar. Nap was used to anesthetize the flies. After a week f1 had laid eggs and f1 pupas were visible. Parents were removed from vial. A week later the drosophila f1 had developed and were analyzed and counted.

The fruit fly, Drosophila melanogaster, became an important model organism for the study of human genetics and for the establishment of more biological principles (Roberts 2006). This organism became a good candidate to work with because of its short life cycle, its inexpensiveness, small size, its genetic variability, easily cultured and its ability to produce many offspring. Nichols and Phandey made an important discovery: approximately 75% of disease-causing genes in humans are homologous to genes found in Drosophila melanogaster (Russell and Tickoo). This is an important observation, because it made it possible to discover treatments for human diseases. For example, the fly has a tumor gene homologous to the human LATS1 gene.

Mendel’s first law of inheritance is also known as the law of equal segregation. This law states that the two members of a gene pair segregate equally into gamete cells. In other words, each sex cell contains only one copy of a gene. Mendel discovered the second law—now known as the law of independent assortment—while studying dihybrid crosses. This law states that genes assort independently during gamete formation. This explains how there are different combinations of different phenotypes. In peas, for example, yellow color is not always associated with a round shape. There can be different combinations of round and wrinkled shape with yellow and green color (Griffiths, 2015). Though there are some exceptions to this rule, such as linked genes and sex-linked genes, the traits investigated in this experiment strictly follow Mendelian inheritance.

The purpose of our experiment was to see the progeny from the cross between the wild-type females and the mutant males and the cross between mutant females and wild-type males. We started by preparing the vials for the test cross. We had first prepare that inside the vials that will provide nutrients to the fruit flies so that they can carry out their life cycle. To do this, we obtained a clean vial and a foam plug. Next, a small scoop of powdered food was added to the vial. Then a small scoop of tap water was added. Once the mixed, approximately 4 grains of yeast were added. The vial was then tapped on the table to level out the mixture. The inside wall was then wiped with a clean Kim-wipe to keep the flies from sticking to the wall. This

As a part of my Genetics minor, we were required to know how to sequence genomes, identify genetic linkages and have an extensive knowledge about the Drosophila fly. Usually a set experiment with all the steps to follow is given. For one report, no instructions were given and the only information presented was a list of genes in the Drosophila fly and the name of the gene allocated to us. From this we were required to map the position of our gene as well as the two genes located next to it. Without any prior experience, I designed my own experiment to show genetic linkage of three different genes in the fly.

Brief Background This experiment is designed to help us better understand modes of inheritance with the use of Drosophila melanogaster. With the use of Drosophila we are able to clearly observe the fundamental principles of Mendelian genetics. In this experiment, we are able to observe the inheritance of certain phenotypes in Drosophila melanogaster. The Law of random segregation is defined as the distribution of genes to gametes during meiosis.

The fruit fly is the quintessential model organism, and have been for than a century. in fact, a scientist by the name of Thomas Hunt Morgan was working with fruit flies in 1910. The fruit flies have various characteristics that make it an excellent choice to study for humans. for one, most of its genome has been mapped out, “nearly 75% of human disease-causing genes are believed to have a functional homolog in the fly” (Pandey, Nicholas, 2011). Their genome is very similar to humans which is why they’re studied so extensively. Another reason they’re ideal candidates is that they're easy to work with primarily. They have very short life cycles which provide abundant offsprings. They also have a very low number of chromosomes, one pair of sex

melanogaster is excellent in studying and observing genetic traits, this is due to the flies’ rapid reproduction, numerous offspring, and three chromosome genome.2 Of these three chromosomes, the X chromosome is essential in determining sex, as sex is determined by the ratio of X chromosomes to autosomes in D. melanogaster.2 Male and female D. melanogaster can be distinguished by certain morphology differences. Females are usually larger than males, with stripes along their entire abdomen.3 Males, instead of having stripes at the end of the abdomen, usually have a dark spot at its tip.3

Drosophila Melanogaster commonly known as a fruit fly, is a model organism, used by scientist / genetics all around the world to study, the genetic component, its genetic mutations, it’s genetic relations between different mutations through learning and understand the principle behind gene transformation, from one generation of flies to the other. The underlaying reason why scientist favor it among other eukaryotes its due its small size, and it’s high rate of reproduction within days. Drosophila Melanogaster was first used as a model organism by Thomas Morgan “ in 1911…who investigated the inheritance pattern of different trait that had been shown to follow the X-linked

In the F2 the gender of the flies were irrelevant to figure out the genotype. This is all because of the father fly. The father in this cross was a homozygous recessive individual for both the genes on the X chromosome and so all his female offspring will either be heterozygous or homozygous recessive at each gene. The males on the other hand only receive their X chromosome from the mother (father provides their Y chromosome) so all the alleles for these