Drosophila Melanogaster Lab Report

Drosophila Melanogaster (common fruit fly) is widely used to understand the complex processes involved in genetics and development. The nervous system of Drosophila and vertebrates consists of neurons and glial cells. Glial cells are the most abundant cell type in the nervous system. Glial cells are cells in the central and peripheral nervous system that provide support and protection for neurons, form myelin and provide insulation. In vertebrates, the glial cell subtypes are: astrocytes, oligodendrocytes, microglia, and Schwann cells. In Drosophila, the glial cells subtypes function similarly and are known as cortex glia, neuropil glia, surface glia, and peripheral glia. In our lab, we will focus on neuropil glia which functions similarly to oligodendrocytes (produces myelin in CNS). …show more content…
These cells offer structural support to the axons that form a ladder-like structure called the axonal scaffold in the Drosophila central nervous system. Midline glial cells function like oligodentrocytes and provides insulation for the axon. We will be using, Reversed Polarity (repo), Pointed (pnt), which are transcription factors (proteins that are involved in the process of converting DNA into RNA) to observe how lateral glial cells separate into different subtypes (Figure 1). We will be using PointedP1 (PntP1) because it is expressed in lateral glial cells and we are interested in how lateral glial cells differentiate. The gene cg31235, which is solely expressed in longitudinal glia, will be used for this experiment. Longitudinal glial cells are a subtype of lateral glial cells that ensheaths the axons of the longitudinal connectives (gray area below the blue longitudinal