Discussion Portion
Discussion
The hypothesis was supported during the experiment. We originally hypothesized that if parental strains of stock D. melanogaster were mated, the ratios of the phenotypes in the F1 generation would be completely random and follow the laws of segregation and independent assortment. Under such assumption, the 3 genes examined in this experiment would not be linked, and the final observed number of F1 flies with each phenotype would equal the expected number under the null hypothesis. The expected number in each case was half the total number of flies for phenotypes that were possible in the offspring based on the parental phenotype. This was statistically found to be the case in both Cross Set D and E in this experiment. In both crosses, the p-value for the Chi-squared test was between 0.1 and 0.9, which is much higher than the maximum of 0.05 needed for rejection of the null hypothesis. Specifically, we can say that the long-winged, red-eyed flies made up close to 50% of the F1 offspring in Cross D, while the long-winged sepia flies comprised the other 50% within statistical reason. This corresponding is true in Cross E: long-winged, red-eyed flies should comprise 50% and long-winged, white-eyed flies should comprise the other …show more content…
melanogaster is important since it is a widely-used model organism in genetics research. It is important to understand which genes and alleles are present in which chromosomes, what the function and phenotype of the corresponding gene is, and if multiple genes are significantly linked and do not separate independently during meiosis. The results of this experiment have verified that the autosomal gene that control long versus apterous wings separates independently from two genes controlling eye color: one autosomal and one X-linked. This should pave the way for future studies, which should further examine the linkage between the many other genes from in D.