Fruit Fly Experiment Essay

The effect of being exposed to light effected the phenotype of the Drosophila melangaster. The phenotype frequencies changed for both the red eyed and white eyed fruit flies (Figure 1). In the populations that were in complete darkness, the white and red eyed phenotypic ratio stayed almost constant throughout the whole experiment for both male and female fruit flies, which was shown with a “V” formation (Figure 1). This trend did not continue, though when it came to the phenotypic ratio for both eye colors when they were in the cage that was exposed to light. The red eyed phenotype in the male fruit flies increase by .25 but only .223 when it came to the females during the whole experiment (Table 1). Overall, there was an effect on the fruit flies’ phenotype when it came to if they were exposed to light or not.

2: The phenotypic ratio for white eyed males decreased when exposed to light, but increased when they were kept in darkness. The white eyed phenotypic ratio for males that were exposed to light …show more content…
Hypothesis 1 stated that, females prefer the appearance of red-eyed alleles, the frequency of white-eyed flies will decrease in the population cage that is maintained in the light, but not in the population maintained in the dark. This hypothesis was correct and this was proven when there was a higher genotype of red eyed fruit flies to white eyed fruit flies in the light exposed cage compared to the dark cage at the end of the experiment (Figure 1). The reasoning behind this conclusion, according to Reed, “the white allele is at a disadvantage compared to the red eyed allele because the fruit flies with red eyed ales have greater success with mating compared to white eyed ones” (Reed 34). The reasoning behind why there was a greater increase of red eyed phenotype in the cage was because the females could see the eye color of their mate, compared to in the dark cage, when they were not able to see their