An Introduction to Drosophila melanogaster

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Teachers should use fruit flies for high school genetic studies for several reasons:
1. They are small and easily handled.
2. They can be easily anesthetized and manipulated individually with unsophisticated equipment.
3. They are sexually dimorphic (males and females are different), making it is quite easy to differentiate the
sexes.
4. Virgins fruit flies are physically distinctive from mature adults, making it easy to obtain virgin males and
females for genetic crosses.
5. Flies have a short generation time (10-12 days) and do well at room temperature.
6. The care and culture of fruit flies requires little equipment, is low in cost and uses little space even for
large cultures.

By using Drosophila, students will:

1. Understand Mendelian genetics and inheritance of traits
2. Draw conclusions of heredity patterns from data obtained
3. Construct traps to catch wild populations of D. melanogaster
4. Gain an understanding of the life cycle of D. melanogaster, an insect which exhibits complete
metamorphosis
5. Construct crosses of caught and known wild- type and mutated flies
6. Learn techniques to manipulate flies, sex them, and keep concise journal notes
7. Learn culturing techniques to keep the flies healthy
8. Realize many science experiments cannot be conducted and concluded within one or two lab
sessions
 LECTURE 1: INTRODUCTION TO DROSOPHILA

DROSOPHILA CULTURE

We will study basic principles of Mendelian inheritance with the use of the fruit fly,
Drosophila melanogaster [the name means “black-bodied fruit-lover”]. Drosophila was one
of the first organisms to be studied genetically: its small size, short life cycle (10 ~14 days
at 25oC), high reproductive rate (an adult female can lay 400-500 eggs in 10 days),
and ease of culture and genetic manipulation have made it perhaps the best understood
animal genetic system. Many different species, and a large number and wide variety of
naturally-occurring and artificially induced genetic variants are available. The partial
genetic map in Appendix B describes the location of all the mutations used in crosses and
lab questions.

VIRGIN FEMALES
All female flies used in controlled genetic crosses must be “virgins”. Female flies are capable of
mating as early as 8 hours after emerging from the pupae stage and are polyandrous, that
is, capable of mating with several males. Once mated, females can retain viable sperm for several
days and this will confuse the results of a subsequent controlled mating. To prevent this, all adult
flies are removed from the culture bottle about 7 hours prior to lab time, so that all newly hatched
flies will remain virgin.
BASIC GENETICS
The karyotype of Drosophila comprises four pairs of chromosomes, of which three pairs
are autosomes and one pair are sex chromosomes. Female Drosophila are XX, and males XY.

A gene is a heritable factor that controls the expression of some trait, which may be
morphological, behavioral, molecular, etc. Each such gene occupies a specific physical locus (pl.
loci) on a particular chromosome. Variant forms of these loci are termed alleles. Gene, locus,
and allele are often used more or less interchangeably, and this can lead to confusion.

• Gene is the popular and most general term, and is most appropriate when the inherited
basis of a trait is emphasized, e.g., a “gene” for eye color.

• Locus is most appropriate when the physical nature or position of a gene, especially with
respect to other genes, is emphasized, as for example in gene mapping and linkage
studies.

• Allele is most appropriate when the particular form(s) of a gene found in any particular
individual or chromosome is(are) emphasized: e.g., there are “brown” and “blue” alleles of
the eye color gene

• It is therefore inaccurate to say, for example, “He has the gene for sickle-cell anemia,” and
more accurate to say “He has two HbS alleles at the beta-globin locus on Chromosome
6.” We all have the “gene” for every genetic condition, some of us have the particular
allele(s) that result in the condition being expressed.

In the technical literature, “locus” and “allele” are probably more common than “gene”. Drosophila,
like most species we will deal with in this course, are diploid, with two sets of chromosomes and
therefore two alleles at each autosomal locus. If both alleles are identical, the individual is a
homozygote and is described as homozygous. If the alleles differ from each 2 other, the
individual is a heterozygote and is described as heterozygous. If the gene occurs on a sex
chromosome, females may be either homozygous or heterozygous, but a male fly with only one
allele at a locus will be a hemizygote and would be described as hemizygous
 EXERCISE 1 - HANDLING AND SEXING DROSOPHILA

DISTINGUISHING SEX
If you were to set up specific crosses, you must first be able to distinguish between males
and females. As well, sex-linked loci show different patterns of inheritance in males and females.
Therefore, to determine how a genetic trait is inherited, it is necessary to record the sex of the
flies in each phenotype.

Observe wild-type flies from the stock bottle marked " + ". There are several morphological differences
between male and female Drosophila. Make sure you can distinguish males from females as you will
have to do so when you do Investigation 1.

The abdomen of the female has seven segments, several dark transverse stripes and is pointed at the tip.
The abdomen of the male has only five segments, two dark stripes, and a more rounded, heavily
pigmented tip (Fig. 1). In immature males, the pigmentation may not be developed.

The most dependable characteristic is the external genitalia. Flip the fly on its back and look at the end of
the abdomen. The (mature) male will show dark genitalia, while the female abdomen will be pale in color
and relatively smooth (Fig. 2).

Male flies have a secondary sex characteristic called a sex comb, which is a small tuft of about 10 black
bristles at the front of the last large segment (#3 counting from the body) (Fig. 3).
This is visible even in immature males.

Figure 1. Dorsal view of male (left) and female (right) Drosophila. Note segments in male, & pointed
abdomen in female
I. RESULT/ DIAGRAM/ TABLES/ PICTURES:

P1 MALE P1 FEMALE
(Dorsal View) (Dorsal View)

P1 MALE P1 FEMALE
(Ventral View) (Ventral View)

P1 MALE P1 FEMALE
(Lateral View) (Lateral View)
 P1 MALE P1 FEMALE
(Dorsal View (Dorsal View
with parts) with parts)

P1 MALE P1 FEMALE
(Ventral View (Ventral View
with parts) with parts)

P1 MALE P1 MALE
(Lateral View (Lateral View
with parts) with parts)
 LECTURE 2 - OBSERVATION OF DROSOPHILA MUTANTS

To carry out the Drosophila crosses in Investigation 1, and to more fully appreciate Drosophila
genetics generally, it is necessary to familiarize ourselves with the appearance of wild type flies,
and some of the more common or interesting phenotypic mutant phenotypes. This exercise will
allow you to examine some of these.

Observe as many of the following phenotype as time permits. Compare the morphology with that
of a wild-type fly, shown on the next page. For any one of these, make an accurate biological picture.
Note the differences compared to wild type flies.

The drawing and answers to questions are due at the end of the lab period.
Figure 1: Drosophila melanogaster in dorsal, lateral, and wing views. Note morphological
variation in features of the head, thorax, and wings in the various mutant strains available in the
lab
 EXERCISE 2: FRUIT FLY (Drosophila melanogaster)

DROSOPHILA SEX BODY EYE WINGS ANTENNA WILD MUTANT

COLOR COLOR TYPE
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20

RATIO:

P1 FEMALE-
MALE-

CONCLUSION

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MUTANT FRUITFLY/IES