Drosophilia Melanogaster Impact On Genetics
How did the Drosophilia melanogaster impact Genetics?
Thomas Hunt Morgan used Drosophila melanogaster for studying heredity. Morgan used the Drosophila melanogaster, known as the fruit fly, because it feeds on decaying fruit. It is small, about 3 mm long, and easy to raise in the laboratory; a thousand can be collected in a one-quart glass milk bottle. Moreover, it is fertile all year long and very prolific, producing a new generation every twelve days, or thirty generations per year. Not only are male and female offspring easy to distinguish, but embryonic development occurs outside the body, making it a simple matter to study the effects of mutations on development. Finally, Drosophila melanogaster has only four pairs of chromosomes.
Thomas Hunt Morgan used Drosophila melanogaster for studying heredity. Morgan used the Drosophila melanogaster, known as the fruit fly, because it feeds on decaying fruit. It is small, about 3 mm long, and easy to raise in the laboratory; a thousand can be collected in a one-quart glass milk bottle. Moreover, it is fertile all year long and very prolific, producing a new generation every twelve days, or thirty generations per year. Not only are male and female offspring easy to distinguish, but embryonic development occurs outside the body, making it a simple matter to study the effects of mutations on development. Finally, Drosophila melanogaster has only four pairs of chromosomes.