Drosophila Melanogaster Research Paper

4. Clear wing, Black eye, and Hairless (c, b, and h) are linked, recessive traits carried on

This may have been the cause of the low numbers of white lozenge in the F2 generation of flies. However, the cause of white eyes is a defective red pigment gene and should not affect the vision of the flies, whereas the lozenge gene should have a greater affect due to it causing the malformation of the fly's eyes. Therefore the lozenge flies should have also been in lower than expected numbers, but it was found that they were actually in higher than expected numbers making the validity of this argument questionable.

Drosophila melanogaster is a small, common fly found near unripe and rotted fruit. It has been in use for over a century to study genetics. Thomas Hunt Morgan was the best biologist studying Drosophila early in the 1900’s. Morgan was the first to discover sex-linkage and genetic recombination, which placed the small fly in the forefront of genetic research. Scientists have used Drosophila for many reasons. For one they are very easy to maintain, breed, anesthetize, and kill with little equipment. They are also very small and it is easy to distinguish males vs females and sexually mature flies and virgins. At lastly, the flies have a very short two week life span. On days 2-7 of their life

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 conducted experiment assists in determining an unknown mutant allele found in Drosophila melanogatser. Mutant 489 illustrates a defect in eye pigmentation, which displays a dark brown eye color verses the brick red eyes in wild type flies. Based on the appearance our 489 mutation we've names our mutant rust.

The unknown D. melanogaster mutant feature different phenotypic characteristics in wings compared to those in wild-type flies. The wild-type flies have balloon-like structure wings with oval-shaped edge and continuous bristle hair row surrounding the wing margin. Meanwhile the mutant wings exhibit incisions in different size and shapes along the wing margins with discontinuous bristle hair row. The mutant wings are also slightly smaller than the wild-type ones. These features

There were eight different phenotypes among the progeny. The highest phenotypic frequency was the w+m+f+ at 40% of the progeny. The lowest was the w+mf+ with only 2 % of the progeny (Table 3). The sum of the recombinant frequencies between genes, table 4, was used to determine the gene distance. The recombinant frequency was determined by counting the number of individuals whose genes differed from that of the parental type. For example, how many individuals white eye gene, and miniature wing gene, differed from both wild-type or both mutants. Recombination occurred between the white and miniature gene 33 times. Recombination occurred between the miniature and the forked genes 31 times. Recombination occurred between the white and forked genes 44 time. Double recombination occurred 10 times. Therefore, genes w and f are 64 m.u. apart, m and w are 33 m.u. apart, and m and f are 31 m.u. apart (Figure

The 792 Drosophila melanogaster mutation is known as guindo. Guindo or guinda is the spanish word for a deep red wine, burgundy or ox-blood color. The phenotypic differences between a WT D.melanogaster and a 792 MUT differ at their larval, pupal and adult stage. In the larval stage there was not any significant phenotypic differences noticed, only behavioral differences were apparent. The wandering MUT larvae had a tendency to clump or travel as a group; while the WT wandered and scattered individually. At the pupal stage the MUT Drosophila melanogaster had a uniform shape and size. All of the MUTs seemed to have spiracles. The WT pupa differed in size and shape, and spiracles were not noticeable in all of them. In the adult stage MUT wings were almost parallel to the body and close together, compared to the flared out WT wings. The antennae on MUTs also seemed to be larger than in WT. The mouth was also a noticeable difference, MUTs had a much smaller mouth than WT did. The most noticeable difference is the eye color and shape. MUTs had a

When examining the D. Melanogaster mutants in the lab, our group immediately noticed an apparent difference from the wild-type flies. None of the mutants were able to fly. This led us to believe that we were dealing with a wing mutation. Upon further examination, we concluded that it was the overall wing shape that prevented the mutants from flying. The wing shapes among the mutants varied in both size and shape. Some were long, while others were short. The mutant wings could be distinguished into two general classes. One division of the mutant wing was short and stubby, almost a fourth the size of the wild-type wing. The rest of the mutants ranged in wing size and length, however many mutant wings were the same length as the wild-type wings. Although the

Environmental conditions are sometimes appropriate for the evolution of numerous species from a common ancestor. Evolutionary, or adaptive, radiations happen when a large number of species descend from one lineage. This phenomenon usually occurs when a population of one species colonizes an area with many available ecological niches and when the rate of speciation is greater than the rate of extinction in a given area. Adaptive radiations have historically taken place after mass extinctions and on newly formed island archipelagos, because these incidences create conditions where new species can fill open ecological niches. Unlike the mainland, ecological niches are available on new island systems. These island species adapt to new environments

Heterozygotes, which have the wild type phenotype, have normal sight which gives them the advantage of finding a mate and have a better success with attracting a mate with their courtship song (Kyriacou et al, 1978). The male heterozygous Drosophila had a better advantage at mating than the homozygotes, which were the ebony, and therefore we predict there will be more wild type by the end of the experiment.

In cross B, a red-eyed female fly was placed into a vial with a white-eyed male fly and a red- eyed male fly for a breeding period of two weeks. At least eight red-eyed females were produced from this cross. These eight females were used to conduct a polymerase chain reaction. Comparing to the control groups, the results show that seven out of eight flies has the Xw+ Xw genotype because all of them had both bands appear on the gel when both alleles were present. This indicates that all of them are heterozygous. They are all red-eye females. Fly 7, however either of the band appear. This means that an error occurred, and one possible error could be not enough DNA were extracted therefore the gel could

With a basic understanding of Mendelian genetics and application of genetic tools, characteristics of these mutations were assessed. The studied mutations were to the vestigial gene and eye pigment gene with phenotypes expressed as ectopic wings and white eyes respectively. Through cross breeding of the parent generation, and subsequent daughter generations, along with manipulation of sex and phenotype being crossed, the inheritance pattern, chromosomal loci, and whether the mutation is sex link can all be discovered. Given the results of F1 crosses, the Vg gene is expressed following an autosomal inheritance pattern while being recessive to a dominant WT phenotype of normal wings. The white-eye phenotype is expressed as a sex-linked trait as it is exclusively expressed in male flies. This hypothesis cannot be confirmed until the F2 generation is crossed and

True flies are insects of the order Diptera (from the Greek di = two, and ptera = wings). The most obvious distinction from other orders of insects is that a typical fly possesses a pair of flight wings on the mesothorax and a pair of halteres, derived from the hind wings, on the metathorax. (Some species of flies are exceptional in that they are secondarily flightless.) The only other order of insects bearing two true, functional wings plus any form of halteres are the Strepsiptera, and in contrast to the flies, the Strepsiptera bear their halteres on the mesothorax and their flight wings on the metathorax.

Based upon observation of the F1 generation, we hypothesize that the inheritance of the white-eye (W) mutation is sex-linked and recessive wild type.