Introduction The organism used in this lab is the Drosophila melanogaster, otherwise known as the common fruit fly.

There are numerous reasons for this organisms usefulness in genetic research, one of them being its relatively small genome, consisting of five chromosomes with 13,601 individual genes (Preuss 2000). There are also much simpler reasons why D. Melanogaster is considered a near perfect test subject for genetic research, one being as its small size, rapid reproduction and life cycle, readily distinguishable genetic variations, and its large amount of offspring (Geiger 2002). The fruit fly goes through its rapid life cycle in 4 stages. The first stage is the egg stage, the small eggs can be seen with the naked eye, they are oval shaped. The second stage is the larval stage, twenty-four hours after the egg is deposited the larva emerges, during this stage the larva molts two times, growing with each molt. The third stage is the pupal stage, in this stage the larva travels up the vial and the puparium hardens and darkens, this is when and where metamorphosis will take place. The last stages of metamorphosis can be seen through the pupal casing, such as the formation of the eyes and wings. The fourth stage is the adult stage, the adult fruit fly will emerge with unexpanded wings and a light color, although in mere hours it will look like a normal D. Melanogaster adult (Carlson 1994). Like all organisms, D. Melanogaster follows Mendels law of segregation which states that each gamete only has one allele for each trait, and his law of independent assortment states that the alleles of one trait do not affect the outcome of another trait. There are however exceptions to these laws. These laws sidelined by traits on the same chromosome and by alleles on the X chromosome, called sex-linked traits (McClean 2000). With the purpose verifying if some genetic crosses are autosomal or sex-linked, we will conduct 3 different crosses. A monohybrid cross consisting of one varying characteristic, a dihybrid cross

consisting of two varying characteristics, and a sex-linked cross in which the alleles for the characteristic are located on the X chromosome (UOA 2002).

References:
Carlson, Joan . "Life Cycle of the Fruit Fly." The Woodrow Wilson National Fellowship Foundation. N.p., 12 Sept. 1994. Web. 27 Apr. 2012. <http://www.woodrow.org/teachers/bi/1994/life_cycle.html>. Geiger, Pete. "An introduction to Drosophila melanogaster." BIOLOGY.ARIZONA.EDU. N.p., 6 May 2002. Web. 27 Apr. 2012. <http://biology.arizona.edu/sciconn/lessons2/Geiger/intro.htm>. McClean , Phillip. "Mendelian Genetics." NDSU - North Dakota State University. N.p., 18 Feb. 2000. Web. 27 Apr. 2012. <http://www.ndsu.edu/pubweb/~mcclean/plsc431/mendel/mendel1.htm>. Preuss, Paul. "Drosophila sequencing stands as genetic research milestone." Research News. Berkeley Lab, 23 Mar. 2000. Web. 27 Apr. 2012. <www.lbl.gov/ScienceArticles/Archive/drosophila-sequenced.html>. UOA. " The Biology Project." The Biology Project. N.p., 21 Sept. 2002. Web. 27 Apr. 2012. <http://www.biology.arizona.edu/mendelian_genetics/mendelian_genetics.html>.