Fruit Fly Lab Report
Introduction Drosophila melanogaster is a common fruit fly that has been useful for most experiments in the study of Genetics. The male and the female fruit fly are similar and different in regards to how they look, structurally. They are similar because both genders have a head, thorax, proboscis, antennae, eyes, and mouth parts. However, males are smaller than females and have about five abdominal segments as opposed to the seven that the female has. The life cycle of these fruit flies consist of egg, larvae, metamorphosis, and then adult stages. During the egg stage of their life cycle, the eggs are sunk into the food until they become larvae that spend all of their time eating. After, the larvae go through two molting phases called instars,
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These flies were observed in the lab by anaesthetizing them with triethylamine so they won’t fly away. They were then inserted in a vial with a foam stopper so then it was easier to observe them. A dissecting microscope was used to identify the color of their bodies, wing shape, sex characteristics, and any other body characteristics. We used female fruit flies who were virgins six hours after they came out of their cocoons and mated them with male fruit flies. This is how crosses were made while there were a few Genetic …show more content…
Expected Genotypic Ratio Expected Phenotypic ratio
P1 1:1 1:1
F1 1:1 1:1
Recommendations for future study, in my opinion, include studying as many flies as possible in one setting. I come to this conclusion because I would like to see if a female could get white eyes from both the mother and father. In other words, to see if something like this is possible would be helpful in this field of Genetics.
Questions:
1. Why was it necessary for the females of the parental generation to be virgins? The females store sperm in their receptacles and if they were not virgins we would not be able to tell who the fathers were.
2. Why was it not necessary to isolate virgin females for the F1 cross? The females store sperm in their receptacles and if they were not virgins we would not be able to tell who the fathers were 3. Why the adult flies were removed from the vials at weeks 2 and 4? So, they are not being able to mate with the next generation.
So from the results of the experiment I can conclude that the results were close to a 1:1
These flies were observed in the lab by anaesthetizing them with triethylamine so they won’t fly away. They were then inserted in a vial with a foam stopper so then it was easier to observe them. A dissecting microscope was used to identify the color of their bodies, wing shape, sex characteristics, and any other body characteristics. We used female fruit flies who were virgins six hours after they came out of their cocoons and mated them with male fruit flies. This is how crosses were made while there were a few Genetic …show more content…
Expected Genotypic Ratio Expected Phenotypic ratio
P1 1:1 1:1
F1 1:1 1:1
Recommendations for future study, in my opinion, include studying as many flies as possible in one setting. I come to this conclusion because I would like to see if a female could get white eyes from both the mother and father. In other words, to see if something like this is possible would be helpful in this field of Genetics.
Questions:
1. Why was it necessary for the females of the parental generation to be virgins? The females store sperm in their receptacles and if they were not virgins we would not be able to tell who the fathers were.
2. Why was it not necessary to isolate virgin females for the F1 cross? The females store sperm in their receptacles and if they were not virgins we would not be able to tell who the fathers were 3. Why the adult flies were removed from the vials at weeks 2 and 4? So, they are not being able to mate with the next generation.
So from the results of the experiment I can conclude that the results were close to a 1:1