How are Drosophila flies used in science and what is their importance?
Drosophila melanogaster, known colloquially as the fruit fly, remains one of the most commonly used model organisms for biomedical science. For more than one hundred years, the low cost, rapid generation time, and excellent genetic tools have made the fly indispensable for basic research.
Why do scientists study the Drosophila fly?
Today thousands of scientists around the world use Drosophila as a model organism for the same reasons Morgan used this pesky insect in his research over a century ago: – flies are cheap and easy to maintain (Morgan fed them rotten bananas, but nowadays we feed them a soup of corn flour and sugar);
Why are fruit flies used in scientific studies?
Fruit fly are small (3 mm long) but not so small that they can’t be seen without a microscope. This allows scientists to keep millions of them in the laboratory at a time. They are inexpensive to maintain in the laboratory.
What was the conclusion of Drosophila experiment?
He concluded that closer the genes, greater the linkage and vice-versa. Note: He also discovered the white eye mutation in Drosophila. He chooses Droshophila to study the sex-linked genes. The mutation is inherited differently by male and female flies he said.
Why Drosophila is most suitable organism for genetics experiments?
Drosophila has high rate of reproduction and hence newer organisms can be obtained rapidly.
Why Drosophila is most suitable organism for genetic experiments?
What are the conclusions drawn by TH Morgan from the crossing experiments in Drosophila with respect to linkage class 12?
Detailed Answer: Based on his experiment, T.H. Morgan concluded that (a) When two genes were situated on the same chromosome, the proportion of parental gene combinations was much higher than the non parental type. This is due to linkage.
Who studied the phenomenon of linkage in Drosophila?
Thomas Hunt Morgan
| Thomas Hunt Morgan ForMemRS | |
|---|---|
| Known for | Establishing Drosophila melanogaster as a major model organism in genetics Linked genes |
| Awards | Member of the National Academy of Sciences (1909) Foreign Member of the Royal Society (1919) Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine (1933) Copley Medal (1939) |
Why Drosophila is a good model organism?
There are many technical advantages of using Drosophila over vertebrate models; they are easy and inexpensive to culture in laboratory conditions, have a much shorter life cycle, they produce large numbers of externally laid embryos and they can be genetically modified in numerous ways.
What characteristics does the author give for Drosophila being a good model organism?
Drosophila melanogaster provides a well-suited model organism to unravel these interactions in the context of nutrigenomics as it combines several advantages including an affordable maintenance, a short generation time, a high fecundity, a relatively short life expectancy, a well-characterized genome, and the …