Fruit Fly Lab Report

Introduction
The fruit fly better known by geneticist as Drosophila melanogaster, is a very common model used to study genetic inheritance. It is perfect for studying inheritance patterns because of its tiny size and rapid reproduction. They also have many distinct characteristics between genders which makes viewing inheritance patterns easier. Males are small with dark bottoms and tend to have sex combs on their legs. Females are large with stripped bottoms, and pointed bodies. When dealing with the fruit flies they need to be kept in certain temperatures and the lab incubator/refrigerator helps sustain a good temperature. Like humans, the fruit fly has four pairs of chromosomes, one of which is the sex chromosomes.
Experiments with the fruit flies were done to determine if certain patterns were dominant or recessive, and exemplified X-linked or independent assortment. When determining inheritance patterns it is necessary to use virgin female fruit flies, so that any tainted female flies were not infected with the wrong male flies. The female fly traits were called wild type, this particular pattern resulted in red

This means putting all the flies to sleep by fly nap and taking them out to observe traits. Observe the traits under a microscope because the flies are so small. Separate the flies by sex and phenotypes. Record the data collected in the table of your lab manual. Experiment one can now perform a new cross with the F1 x F1 with five males and females from the fly house and place them in a new fly house. The testcross is established by wild type females that are heterozygous and dumpy/ sepia males that are homozygous. Lay both houses on its side and clearly label. Experiment two can now perform a F1 xF1 cross with five females and five males from the old fly house into a new fly house. The testcross for experiment two is wild type female’s heterozygous and sepia/ebony males homozygous from the parental generation into a new fly