Drosophila

INTRODUCTION

The field of Genetics can be described as the study of how characteristics are inherited through genes. Gregor Mendel, an Augustinian Monk, first developed the science of predicting inheritance patterns through a series of experiments involving pea plants. Mendel believed that traits and factors are passed down from parent to offspring. He is often known as the “Father of Genetics.”

Mendel used pea plants because they were self-pollinating. In his studies, he observed plant height, pod color, pod shape, seed shape and color, and the flower color and locations. Through multiple breeding and pollinations, Mendel was able to create plants that he felt were pure lines for a specific trait. These plants were also known as homozygous.

Mendel took pure-line pea plants and cross-pollinated them with other plants that were pure-line for a different specific trait. Mendel called these plants the parental generation, or P1. Mendel discovered by crossing these plants, one trait would be dominant over the other, such as red flowers over white flowers. He then crossed this generation, which he entitled the first filial generation, or F1 generation. Mendel then crossed the offspring of this first generation and entitled their offspring the second filial generation, or F2 generation. When crossing initial pure-line plants and the subsequent crossing of the offspring, Mendel observed that the outcome would be a 3:1 ratio.

In this particular experiment, the species utilized in our testing was the common fruit fly, or Drosophila melanogaster. This species is a popular choice due to the duration of its generation time being short, approximately seven to ten days, and it is easily cultured. Also, since they are small in size, a large amount of space is not required to conduct the experiment. In addition, traits and mutations such as eye color, sex, body color, and wing placement within the Drosophila are easily identified.

The purpose of our...