Fruit Fly Life Cycle: A Genetic Analysis

The basis of genetics were established by Gregor Mendel, an Augustinian monk in the mid to late 1800’s. Through the observations from cross-pollinating pea plants, Mendel was able to discover the basic laws of inheritance. Years later genetics would be studied on a multitude of organisms, some more than others. Drosophila melanogaster or the common fruit fly has been studied in depth for its great advantages, such as size, reproduction rate, ease of care and inexpensive room and board.

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

With the presence of natural selection (fly paper hanging from top of cage) posing a larger threat to the wild flies b/c they can fly better, this will allow vestigial flies to prosper better.

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.

Describe the sex and phenotype of the mutant fly. Describe the phenotype as it compares to the wild type.

Introduction: Drosophila is the name given to a genus of small flies within the family, Drosophilidae. They are commonly referred to as fruit flies or pomace flies. They have historically been called vinegar or wine flies due to the fact that they commonly gather around rotting fruit. The fruit fly is sometimes mistaken for the Tephritidae family of flies which is closely related and is even sometimes referred to as the true fruit fly however; tephritids tend to only feed on unripe fruit, and have been regarded as destructive agricultural pests. For instance, the Mediterranean fruit fly has devastated the agricultural economy sector of several Mediterranean countries millions of dollars in ruined crops.

we said goodbye and placed them in the fly morgue. We allowed the F2 larval

At the end of our experiment, we were able to calculate the error percentage with the actual calculations. We were also able to compare the Punnett squares too. Some of the actual calculations were quite different than the expected, while others were spot on. One example is with normal wings, yellow body, our actual was two thousand two hundred and eighty-four flies and so was our expected. Whether the results were spot on or completely different we still had results to compare to the expected amount of each type of fly.

The results of the 7-week experiment failed to reject the hypothesis that the fruit fly population is in Hardy-Weinberg Equilibrium. In Hardy- Weinberg Equilibrium, we expect 25% of the flies to be ebony and 75% to be wildtype. Wildtype flies in appearance covered both homozygous dominant flies and heterozygous flies because the dominant allele overtakes the recessive allele. Ebony flies had to be homozygous recessive for the ebony allele. Our results were close to the expected in that we had more wildtype flies than ebony flies.

I assist a graduate student in a biology lab working to find genes and mechanisms involved in sperm competition between different strains of Drosophila. I have worked ten hours a week this summer and will continue with those hours during the coming school year. My tasks include identifying and separating individuals by sex, setting up crosses and dissecting males to determine their fertility. Much of what I do requires fine motor skills, attention to detail and a good deal of patience because there are so many tiny flies and larvae to count and handle. The experiment has proven very educational, and I have learned much about fly genetics and evolutionary processes.

Forming a new species can be very tricky, however it is possible. This takes up time and also you need to breed one species with another specific species to get an end result. When it comes to reproducing, choosing a mate is very important. Also, there will be competition between all of the objects participating in this reproduction. Food resources are another very important thing to be aware of.

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.

Fruit Flies were observed throughout most of the experiment. Observing the sex differences between male and female under the microscope help identify the phenotypes as well. For example, it was possible to see if the fruit flies were female or male wildtype, vestigial, white-eye and white eye vestigial. The observations to distinguish female or male fruit flies is that males fruit flies have sex combs on front of their legs. Another observation that can be distinguish between male and female fruit flies is that males have a darker ventral posterior section in the abdomen. Female fruit flies is just plain nothing showing. And lastly, another observation that is used to distinguished between male and females fruit flies is the size. It is considered

In most kitchens the small flies that are found are Drosophila Melanogaster also called fruit fly. They are often brought in by ripened tomatoes, grapes and other perishable items from the garden. Drosophila melanogaster is a little two winged insect about 3mm long two winged insect that belongs to the Diptera, the order of the flies. The drosophila egg is about half a millimeter long. Fertilization takes about one day the embryo to develop and hatch into a worm-like larva. The larva eats and grows continuously, after two days as a third in star larva; it moults one more time to form an immobile pupa. Over the next four days, the body is completely remodeled to give the adult winged form, which then hatches from the pupal

In this strange land, life has mutated. Whether fruit flies consume flesh and lay their young, or leaf rust creating lesions and shriveled skin, thousands of common plant ailments are affecting humans. The affected humans have become extremely sensitive to pesticides, and struggle to survive while being ostracized for their appearance.