Cinnabar Mutation in Drosophilia.docx

Cinnabar Mutation in Drosophilia By: Matt Julian Stacey Krause Margie White Ryan Yoon LB 144 L Sec. 2 J.P. Lawrence October 06, 2009 Introduction Drosophila melanogaster, more commonly known as the vinegar fly, is a useful test subject when analyzing patterns in genetics. They are simple to feed, store, and traits are easily identifiable. With a ten to fourteen day egg to adult timeline, it?s easy to breed a pair of flies and examine the results of genetic inheritance. Other reputable scientists have used vinegar flies numerous times in past investigations. Thomas Morgan was one of the earliest scientists to perform experiments on the Drosophila. In 1911, Thomas Morgan studied five different mutations for eye color and how they were inherited in the Drosophila but he known for his work about the white eye mutation. Roy Clausen was one of many scientists who were sparked by Morgan to perform experiments on Drosophila to find the inheritance of genes. Clausen researched the cinnabar eye mutation in the Drosophila. The cinnabar mutation in Drosophila causes the eye color to become lighter, almost a red-orange color. This is caused because the locus is formed between the colors of vermilion and scarlet. The locus falls to the right of the purple allele in the second chromosome. The difficulty of this mutation is that it?s relatively similar to the wild type eye color of red. Because of this it is important to examine each Drosophila carefully. For following experiment, Drosophila P generation will be crossed to receive an F1 and then F2 generations to examine the inheritance of the cinnabar mutation. The results will aid in the determination of the gene resulting from autosomal traits or sex-linked traits. If the trait is autosomal dominant, the gene expression will be apparent in every generation. If the trait is autosomal recessive, it will only be expressive if both parents are heterozygous for the trait. Finally, if it is sex-linked the gene will be expressed in alternating generations, which variability of sex. Through prior knowledge the expected gene expression through inheritance of the cinnabar mutation, will be autosomal recessive. References Bridges, C.B. 1919. The genetics of purple eye color in Drosophila. American naturalist. 28 : 265- 305. Clausen, Roy. 1924. The inheritance of cinnabar eye-color in Drosophila Melanogaster. The journal of experimental Zoology. 38(4) 423-436. Morgan T.H, 1911. The origin of five mutation in eye color in Drosophila and their mode of inheritance. American association for advancement of science. 33: 534-537. Roberts, David. 2006. Drosophila Melanogaster: the model organism. The Netherlands Entomological society. 121: 93-103.