DISCUSSION:

Hereditary Traits Before one observes their mutants, one needs to be familiar with the appearance of the wild type Drosophila, the type found most often in natural populations of the organisms. Although thousands of mutations in Drosophila are known, only those which are relevant to these exercises are listed. 1. Eyes Wild type: red, oval in shape and many-faceted Mutants: white, black, apricot, scarlet red, pink, or brown; changes in shape and number of facets 2. Wings Wild type: smooth edges, uniform venation, extend beyond the abdomen Mutants: changes in size and shape; absence of specific veins; changes in position in which wings are held when at rest 3. Bristles Wild type: fairly long and smooth (note distribution on head and thorax) Mutants: shortened, thickened, or deformed bristles changes in patterns of distribution 4. Body colour Wild type: basically gray, with pattern of light and dark areas Mutants: black (in varying degrees), yellow, in doubtful cases, color can often be determined most clearly on wing veins and legs Mutants traits can be assumed as recessive to the wild type.

Sex difference Several criteria may be used to distinguish male and female Drosophila melanogaster Body size female is generally larger than male. Abdomen shape the female abdomen curve to a point, the male abdomen is round and much shorter. Figure below show Male (left) and Female (right) wild-type Drosophila. Mark on their abdomen - Alternating dark and light bands can be seen on the entire rear portion of the female; the last few segments of the male are fused. Sex comb - On males there is a tiny tuft of hairs on the basal tarsal segment of the front leg. This is the only sure method of distinguishing young male and female flies (less than 2 hours old), since the other adult traits are not always immediately recognizable. Sexing via the sex comb can also be done successfully in the pupal stage (Hadden and Cunningham, 1970) Sex organ at abdomen - The genitalia are the easiest and most reliable character to use in determining sex (right; ventral view, posterior is up). Note the circle of darkly pigmented parts in the male. In contrast, the tip of the female's abdomen is lightly colored and pointed.

We most probably still had errors in our experiment that prevented the p-value from being an even higher probability. One very apparent source of error is our lack of gentility towards the fruit flies may have inadvertently killed some of them human error. Another error that could have developed is improperly distinguishing between the gender of the flies or characteristics such as their eye color. In addition when manually counting the flies, an experimenter can easily make a mistake. One possible way that the experiment could have been improved is if another model organism with traits that can more easily be told apart 15

was used for experimentation. Also perhaps with the assistance of a teaching assistant in certain parts of the lab dealing with distinguishing flies less error could have occurred. Lastly if each individual experimenter conducted more than one trial and averaged his results, he would have a more accurate representation of Mendelian Genetics.