Introduction
Fruit fly Drosophila melanogaster that is used as a model to study genetics for more than a hundred years. Thomas Hunt Morgan, in the early 1900’s, used the heritable traits of a common species of fruit fly to develop our understanding of genetics. Morgan was the first to show through experiments that genes were located on chromosomes. He also found that certain fruit fly traits like eye color are found on the same chromosomes that also determine their sex. Fruit flies have several characteristics that make them excellent subjects for genetic studies. Gregor Mendel was born 1822, and he is known as “Father of Genetics”. He initially studied the inheritance of just one pair of contrasting traits. Mendel begins his experiment with …show more content…
Mendel recognized two principles that later called Principle of Mendelian. The Principle of Segregation is defined as the instance when two members of a gene pair (alleles) segregate from each other during the formation of gametes in meiosis. Each gamete carries only a single allele of each gene. The progeny is produced by the random combination of gametes from the two parents. The law of independent assortment states that genes assort independently on separate chromosomes during the formation of gametes, and recombination by crossing-over. Sex-linkage is the linkage of genes with sex chromosomes of eukaryotes. These genes which controls the phenotypic characteristics are called sex-linked genes. Morgan found that the gene code for eye color of Drosophila was on X chromosomes, and it was transmitted along with the sex so the gene is sex-linked (Russell, 2010). The sex-linked cross is an inherited pattern of a sex-linked trait. The example is that the mating cross between red eyes fly (male or female) and white eyes fly (male or female). The purpose of this lab is to use genetic crosses to illustrate the principle of segregation, the law of independent assortment and sex-linkage in the fruit fly Drosophila
Fruit fly Drosophila melanogaster that is used as a model to study genetics for more than a hundred years. Thomas Hunt Morgan, in the early 1900’s, used the heritable traits of a common species of fruit fly to develop our understanding of genetics. Morgan was the first to show through experiments that genes were located on chromosomes. He also found that certain fruit fly traits like eye color are found on the same chromosomes that also determine their sex. Fruit flies have several characteristics that make them excellent subjects for genetic studies. Gregor Mendel was born 1822, and he is known as “Father of Genetics”. He initially studied the inheritance of just one pair of contrasting traits. Mendel begins his experiment with …show more content…
Mendel recognized two principles that later called Principle of Mendelian. The Principle of Segregation is defined as the instance when two members of a gene pair (alleles) segregate from each other during the formation of gametes in meiosis. Each gamete carries only a single allele of each gene. The progeny is produced by the random combination of gametes from the two parents. The law of independent assortment states that genes assort independently on separate chromosomes during the formation of gametes, and recombination by crossing-over. Sex-linkage is the linkage of genes with sex chromosomes of eukaryotes. These genes which controls the phenotypic characteristics are called sex-linked genes. Morgan found that the gene code for eye color of Drosophila was on X chromosomes, and it was transmitted along with the sex so the gene is sex-linked (Russell, 2010). The sex-linked cross is an inherited pattern of a sex-linked trait. The example is that the mating cross between red eyes fly (male or female) and white eyes fly (male or female). The purpose of this lab is to use genetic crosses to illustrate the principle of segregation, the law of independent assortment and sex-linkage in the fruit fly Drosophila