unisel

UNIVERSITI SELANGOR

FACULTY OF SCIENCE AND
BIOTECHNOLOGY
(FasBIO)
GENETICS LAB BBS 1134
(melanogaster sp)
(LECTURER: MDM.NUR AKMAL SULAIMAN)
GROUP 3
Devaraj a/l Ravindran 4111018161
Jeevitha a/p Tana sakaran 4111016861
Sujatha a/p kanniappan 4111009531
Premkumar a/l Subramaniam 4111017391
Theevindran a/l Kesavan 4111017311
Paveanthen a/l Ramachandran 4111023071

INTRODUCTION.

Drosophila melanogaster is a species of Diptera, or the order of flies, in the family Drosophilidae. The
species is commonly known as the common fruit fly or vinegar fly. Starting from Charles W.
Woodworth, this species is one of the most commonly used model organisms in biology, including
studies in genetics, physiology, microbial pathogenesis and life history evolution because they are easy to
take care of, breed quickly, and lay many eggs. Flies belonging to the family Tephritidae are also called
fruit flies, which can lead to confusion, especially in Australia and South Africa, where the term fruit fly
refers to members of the Tephritidae that are economic pests in fruit production, such as Ceratitis
capitata, the Mediterranean fruit fly or Medfly. Wild type fruit flies have brick red eyes, are yellow-
brown in color, and have transverse black rings across their abdomen. They exhibit sexual dimorphism:
females are about 2.5 millimeters (0.098 in) long; males are slightly smaller and the back of their bodies
is darker. Males are easily distinguished from females based on color differences, with a distinct black
patch at the abdomen, less noticeable in recently emerged flies, and the sexcombs (a row of dark bristles
on the tarsus of the first leg). Furthermore, males have a cluster of spiky hairs (claspers) surrounding the
reproducing parts used to attach to the female during mating.














AIM.
To conduct monohybrid crosses among Drosophila Melanogaster by referring to wild types and another
cross referring to vestigial wings.

MATERIALS.
Clean vials, instant Drosophila medium, grains of dry yeast, ether, cotton wool.

PROCEDURE.
1. Preparing culture medium
a. Vials are made sure to be cleaned; equal volumes of instant Drosophila medium and cool
water are added into the vials.Few grains of dry yeast are sprinkled on top of medium.

2. Etherization
a) An empty culture vial was used for transferring the flies. A few drops of ether were dripped
on the cotton wool set aside.
b) The bottom of the culture vessel was tapped against the palm of hand to knock flies down.
c) The plug from the culture was removed .The culture was inverted over the anesthetizer and
the flies were tapped into the chamber.
d) Once the adults are tapped into the chamber,the culture vessels were then quickly righted so
that its base covers the top of the anesthetizer.
e) The culture vessels were plugged.The base of the anesthetizer was tapped on the table,the
culture vessels were removed,and the anesthetizer was plugged with the stopper.
f) The behavior of the flies in the chamber are watched.The flies were dumped onto a white
card for examination with a microscope about 20 seconds after they stop moving.

3. Sorting and selecting
a. The anasthetized flies were placed in a row on a white card and they were moved about with
a fine brush.
b. The flies were examined under microscope(12x-15x).
c. They were then sorted according to sex and trait required.
d. The fly was sketched, the trait description(eye colour, body colour, wing type etc) were then
labeled and wrote down.
e. The dead flies were discarded into a morgue (a jar filled with alcohol/oil/detergent).


4. Virgins Culture
a. 5 pairs of the Wild type flies (5 males and 5 females) were placed in a vial,vial was
placed tilted.
b. The date of culture and the cross information (eg:vg/+ x vg/+) were labeled.
c. The presence of egg (white in colour aginst the blue medium) were checked after 24
hours of cross and the parents were removed after a week.
d. The same procedures were repeated for vestigial wings.


OBSERVATIONS.
The experiment was a failure due to some reasons.

DISCUSSION.
1) The experiment was a failure because the culture was too dry as it contained too little water.This
caused the culture to be insufficient of nutrients thus causing many of the flies to die.Therefore,
the reduced number of flies was not sufficient enough to test Mendellian Law due to smaller size
of sample.
2) Extended period of time in removing parental flies disrupted the process in obtaining pure F1
generation.Intercross occurred among the F1 generation produced F2 generation.

CONCLUSION.
Due to the weaknesses mentioned in the discussion,the experiment didnt manage to meet its goal.If
those weaknesses were overcomed,this experiment might have been successfully finished without any
errors along the way and the results would have suited the Mendellians law.

REFERENCE:
Title : Melanogaster sp. Accessed from: http://whyevolutionistrue.wordpress.com/2011/03/20/whos-
related-to-fruit-flies/mwedrosophilamelanogaster00001/. Accessed date: 21/10/11.