Genetics of

Drosophila
Lab Report
Victor Martin
April 14, 2015
Fourth Block
AP Biology
INTRODUCTION

Genetics is a topic that has been studied for hundreds of years. One of the most notable
geneticists was Gregor Mendel. Gregor Johann Mendels experiments with garden peas
dramatically influenced the field of biology. Mendels results became the foundation for the
discipline known as genetics, which is the study of variation and inheritance. Mendels
experiments were done by using varieties of pea plant. He crossed those varieties of pea together
by transferring the male pollen from one variety to the female parts in flowers of another variety
artificially. He considered seven different characters including flower color, flower position, seed
color, seed shape, pod color, pod shape, and stem length. Variations of a given character are
known as traits. Then, he collected the seeds and grew them to find out what their characteristics
looked like. Later his results were surprising; characteristics from the original parents had
disappeared or reappeared in their offspring. During his experiments, he discovered that there
were particles of inheritance factors, which are now called genes. Specifically, genes are
heritable factors that control a specific characteristic. Mendel also thought that were alternative
forms of a gene which were responsible for variations in inherited characters. Those forms of a
gene are now called alleles. After he got surprising results, he observed that the ratio of pea
plants was always close to 3:1, dominant alleles to recessive alleles. For instance, in the pea
plants that Mendel used have two alleles for stem length, a tall stem and a dwarf stem. With truebreeding homozygous parents called the P generation, he first crossed a tall plant with a dwarf
plant. The first offspring, called the F1 generation, were all tall. This is because a tall stem is a
dominant character in pea plant and a dwarf stem is a recessive character. In F2 generation from
the self-pollination of F1 plants, the phenotype ratio of tall plants to dwarf plants was
approximately 3:1. Here, Mendel discovered that this ratio was made from a cross between
heterozygotes. He also used dihybrid crosses in order to explain his law of independent

assortment, which is that alleles for different characters segregate into each gamete
independently. In a dihybrid cross, the phenotype ratio of heterozygous F1 cross is approximately
9:3:3:1 in F2 generation. Furthermore, Punnett square is useful to predict the genotypes and
phenotypes from a genetic cross.
Chi-square analysis is a statistical test that makes a comparison between the data
collected in an experiment and expected data. In genetics, the Chi-square analysis used to
evaluate data from experimental crosses to determine if the assumed genetic explanation is
supported by the data.
Since then, Drosophila melanogaster, the common fruit fly, has been a useful organism
for the study of genetics. Its relatively short generation time (approximately 10 days at 25oC)
yields a large amount of breeding data in a short period of time. Because of its simple food
requirements and easy handling in the laboratory, large and varied stocks of Drosophila can be
maintained with minimal cost and effort. The person who originally proposed the use of the fruit
fly was Thomas Hunt Morgan while he worked at Columbia University in the early 1900s. For
his genetics work with fruit fly, he received the Nobel Prize in Medicine in 1933.
In this virtual Fruit Fly Genetics Lab, fruit flies will be used, in addition with the Punnett
square, Chi-square analysis, and other basic knowledge, it will be easy to simulate basic
principles of genetic inheritance based on Mendels genetics by performing crosses between the
fruit flies. The Chi-square analysis will be used so that I can accept or reject my hypothesis for
the expected phenotypic ratio of offspring for each cross. The tasks of this lab are to investigate
traits of fruit flies and to show proof that I have found traits which are inherited in the following
five manners: a monohybrid cross, a sex-linked trait, a dihybrid cross, a linkage group, and a
lethal mutation. Everything in the lab has already been set up for you, so you only need to order

the flies, pick the certain types of traits their chromosomes will have, and start creating the
experiment that you are asked to do.
My hypothesis for the first part of the lab is that there will be, in some ways, a 3:1 ratio
for the chi square analysis. For the second part, my hypothesis states that the male offspring will
get the sex-linked traits from their mutated mother, and nothing will happen when its reciprocal,
or when the father is the mutated parent. For the third part, I predict that the 9:3:3:1 ratio will
approximately be the result for the chi square analysis. For the fourth part, I believe that there
will be no change in difference between a cross between a mutant with two traits less than 20
map units apart and a mutant with traits more than 20 map units apart. For the fifth and final part,
my hypothesis is that the offspring will have all of the lethal mutations that they received from
their parents.

MATERIALS AND METHODS

The lab directions are listed under the first citation on the resources page.

RESULTS

Figure 1 Monohybrid Cross of P Generation and First Generation Offspring

Figure 1 shows the first parents, or the P generation, for the monohybrid cross I did. I used the
black body trait crossed it with a normal wild type and it displayed normal wild type offspring
for generation 1. Both the male and female phenotypes were both wild type, which they got from
the father.

Figure 2 Monohybrid Crosses on First Generation and Second Generation Offspring

This figure shows more to the monohybrid cross I did between a black body female and a wild
type male. The first generation offspring had the same phenotype as the father, with wild type.
The results after crossing showed the female offspring, with 156 being black body, and 443 being
normal wild type.

Figure 3 Second Set of Offspring from Monohybrid Crossing of the First Generation

Figure 3 shows the rest of the second generation, with 141 black body males and 464 normal
wild type males.

Table 1 Chi Square Analysis on Monohybrid Crosses of Second Generation

Table 1 shows the chi square analysis on the second generation, using a 3:1 ratio for the
hypothesis. The level of significance is fairly high, meaning the ratio was proven to be correct.

Figure 4 Sex-Linked Traits Involving Mutant Female and Results Got on Offspring

The figure above demonstrates how sex-linked traits in one of the parents can lead to the
offspring having. In this case, I used white eyes and a yellow body as a sex-linked trait for the
female parent. The male offspring turned out to have the traits the mother had, where as the
female siblings are normal.

Figure 5 Sex-Linked Traits Involving Mutant Male and Results Got on Offspring

Figure 5 shows what would happen if the male parent had the sex-linked traits. And the answer
is proven that the male and female offspring did not display any traits that relate to abnormal
traits from one of their parents, especially if its male.

Figure 6

Figure 6 displays what the offspring will look like when one of the parents has two traits, but on

two different chromosomes. The first generation offspring were normal wild types, but when I
crossed them, the second generation offspring had the same traits the P generation had.

Figure 7 -

Figure 7 shows the other offspring found in the second generation, where they all share the same
traits the P generation originally had. This could be because the traits are located on two different
chromosomes, which can relate to male and female offspring. However the first generation did
not inherit any traits.

Table 2 Chi Square Analysis on Dihybrid Crosses of Second Generation

This table shows the chi square analysis on the second generation offspring from dihybrid
crossing, or crossing of traits that are located on different chromosomes. The ratio was 9:3:3:1 in
order see if the Mendelian ratio would be accepted in my data shown. The level of significance
was high, so that means it works.

Figure 8

Figure 8 shows the results of crossing a double mutant parent with a normal wild type parent.
The mutant parent has the traits on the same chromesome, but less than 20 map units. I used the
lobe eye shape and purple eye colored as the linkage grouped trait.

Figure 9

The results of the offspring in Figure 9 varied in different traits that were originally from the P
generation. Notice that this set of offspring have regular wing shapes, but almost all of them have
the lobe eyes, with that being mostly female.

Figure 10

Figure 10 shows linkage groups where the traits are more than 20 map units apart. I chose the
dumpy wings and brown eyes, and the first generation offspring were nothing like the double
mutant parent.

Figure 11

Figure 11 shows another set of the second generation, where the offspring range in many
different variations of traits, where some of the offspring are double mutants with both traits on
the same chromosome, while others are single mutants.

Figure 12

Figure 12 shows lethal mutations in both the parent and offspring. In this case I used the star eye
shape on both parents, where several of the offspring were normal wild types, while the others
had inherited the same traits as the parents.

DISCUSSION

In the first assignment, you were supposed to choose at least one mutation in order to
make the monohybrid cross. I chose the black body, and in result, the first generation seemed
normal. However, when crossed them, the second generation had a range between normal wild
type and the black body trait, which originally came from the female parent used in the P
generation. After that, the instructions told me calculate chi square in order to analyze the second
generation. As a result, there was one degree of freedom. Since there are only two classes, you
subtract that with one and get the answer. The level of significance was 0.868, meaning that I
would have to reject my hypothesis since it is greater than the constant number, 0.05. That means
that the data I have created is incorrect about the ratio of the offspring being 3:1. In the second
assignment, it was more focused on the first generation, so no chi square or additional crossing
was needed. I created two crosses, the main cross and its reciprocal, in order to see which one
was right. My hypothesis for this assignment is that the cross with the inherited female parent
will give the traits to the offspring was correct. In this cross, I used a female parent with white

eyes and a yellow body in order to create a sex-linked trait, where the trait will be inherited with
the male offspring in the first generation. It was proven to be correct. This is because the male
offspring only have one X, meaning that they have chance of getting it. On the other hand, the
reciprocal where the male was the mutant made both of the offspring normal and wild type. For
the third assignment, I needed to select two mutated traits on two different chromosomes and see
what happens in the aftermath. I chose a female with an ebony body trait and curved wing trait,
since these two traits are located on two different chromosomes. When I crossed it with the
normal male, the first generation was wild type. The second generation, however, varied in color
and wing shape, as some of them were double mutated, single mutated or just wild type. This
assignment also required me to calculate the chi square for the second generation and analyze
them, with the Mendelian 9:3:3:1 ratio. As a result, the degree of freedom was three, because of
four classes subtracted by one. The level of significance was 0.6556, meaning that the Mendelian
ratio was not able to work, or be proven, since the number is much higher than the constant.
However, it was pretty close though. In the fourth assignment, I was supposed to cross a double
mutant with a wild type. The traits that the mutant will have should be less than 20 map units
from each other on the same chromosome. So I picked the lobe eye shape and purple eye color
traits, since they were 17.5 map units apart from each other, on the same chromosome. When I
crossed them, the first generation were not wild type this time. They both had the lobe eye trait,
but no purple color in their eyes. For the second generation, the offspring varied with a few being
wild type, but the rest having lobe eyes, some with purple eyes and others with normal eye color.
After observing them, the next step I did was to create another cross, but this time, the mutant
parents two traits will be more than 20 map units apart. So I picked the brown eyes and dumpy
eyes, which were 91.5 map units apart from each other, on the same chromosome. Results for

this showed the first generation being wild type, and the second generation being varied in both
traits. My hypothesis was wrong, because the first generation was abnormal instead of being wild
type. I thought the first generation for both of them would have been wild type, and then the
mutations would have come in the second generation. For the fifth and final assignment, I had to
choose the same lethal allele for both of the parents and see what happens in the results. I used
the star eye shape trait for them and soon crossed them. The first generation had four groups
instead of the usual two, where two of the male and female groups had the mutation, whereas the
two were normal wild types. My hypothesis was incorrect, because the not all of the offspring
had the mutation. It was only half of the offspring groups. The key points to this lab to explain
how hereditary diseases and abnormalities are created. This can also be used to understand the
biology of other organisms, like ourselves. Fruit flies do, in fact share 75% of the genes that
cause disease with humans, so scientists really do want to study fruit flies for the understanding
of how all organisms have that same basic biology that is common, even with fruit flies. Because
fruit flies have a 10 day life-span after the larvae stage, it is easy to examine the genetic patterns
of the parents and the other generations of offspring. Using mutations is another great way to see
what would happen to the offspring when the P generation had one or even two mutants. This
will also help us learn more about the key concepts of recessive and dominant traits and how the
offspring can be affected by being normal, or having mutated traits. There really wasnt any
source of error, because the lab was completely a simulation of the real thing, which would of
took much longer than a couple of hours. I guess someone could receive glitches or internet
problems with the website and lab, but that is really all I could think of. One problem I did have
was in the chi square analysis; the hypothesis column part was weird. I dont know if I did it
correct, but I just put the ratios that they instructed me to use for the data. However, the results

made me reject my hypothesis when it was very close. Other than that, everything was simple
and to the point. I do suggest that we could of came up with our own techniques of using the five
different genetic mutations and see what would happen if we came up with these wacky
crossings, or even try and cross all the way to a hundred generations and see what would happen.
There could have been other fun things that we could of done as a spare time for this lab.

CONCLUSION

In conclusion, I learned about how scientists use and relate to other animals, like fruit
flies, in order to figure out how genetics works, especially when using the method Mendel used
many years ago. The lab procedure was self-explanatory and made the lab fairly interesting. I do
have to say the buzzing noise was my least favorite thing about the lab, but the chi square
analysis was more complex than what it should have been. Most of my hypotheses were proven
to be support genetic mutations, but the others were refuted because of the complexity of the chi
square analysis and incorrect predictions. Overall my experience with this lab was most
definitely not boring, but bit more like a way to understand genetics and mutations that can occur
whenever one of the parents had that trait. Once it crosses, there are low and high ratios of
offspring getting it. I have to say that this is a good last formal lab that we have to do, which
really helped me understand more about this chapter.

REFERENCES

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Fruit Flies - Drosophila Genetics | Exploratorium. Exploratorium, n.d. Web. 10 Apr.
2015. <http://www.exploratorium.edu/exhibits/mutant_flies/mutant_flies.html>.
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Trust, 29 Aug. 2002. Web. 11 Apr. 2015. <http%3A%2F%2Fgenome.wellcome.ac.uk
%2Fdoc_WTD020807.html>.
4. "Simple Mendelian Genetics in Drosophila." Department of Mathematics and Computer
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