Brian Hamilton AP Biology, Pd.

1 Lab Write-Up Title: Breeding Mutations in Fruit Flies Introduction: Background: Genetics is the study of inheritance patterns in various organisms. Genetics controls the different genes that control the numerous traits shown in humans and other organisms. Genes, also known as alleles, control the genetic makeup of every organism. There are two types of alleles: dominant and recessive alleles. If a person has to dominant alleles, they are considered homozygous dominant and will show the dominant phenotype, or physical characteristic. A person will also show the dominant phenotype if they are heterozygous dominant, meaning they have one dominant and one recessive allele. A person will only show the recessive phenotype if that person has a homozygous recessive genotype. Mutations can occur in genes, often causing a change in the phenotype. In this lab, we will be observing the genetics of fruit flies; specifically the genetics of skin color in flies. Hypothesis: If we cross a wild type male and ebony female and then cross two of their offspring, the majority of the F1 and F2 offspring will be wild type tan.

Materials and Methods: Materials: Male Wild Type Fruit Fly Female Ebony-Bodied Fruit Fly Two Culture Bottles Anesthetizing Bottle Index Card Stereomicroscope Ether Bottle With Dropper Six Sorting Containers Methods: 1. Add three drops of ether to the cotton cork of the anesthetizing bottle. Anesthetize the tan-colored male fruit fly. Pour the fly onto the index card. 2. Drag the male fly to the microscope to observe it carefully. 3. Place the male fly into the culture bottle. 4. Anesthetize the female ebony-bodied fruit fly. Pour the fly onto

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the index card and then drag the fly to the microscope to look at it carefully. Record your observations. Drag the female fly into the same culture bottle as the male fly to cross the flies. After fifteen days, the culture bottle will contain the F1 generation of offspring. Remove the parent flies from the culture bottle. Anesthetize the flies and pour them onto the index card. Drag the flies to the microscope to look at them carefully. Observe one female and one male from the F1 offspring. Record your observations. Drag the male flies into the container labeled Tan F1 Males and the female flies into the container labeled Tan F1 Females. Record the total number of flies. Predict the ratio of each phenotype that will occur in the F2 generation. From the sorting containers, drag a male and a female into a fresh culture bottle to cross the flies. After fifteen days the culture bottle will contain the F2 generation of adult offspring. Remove the parent flies. Anesthetize the F2 generation offspring and pour the flies onto the index card. Drag the flies to the microscope to look at them carefully. Identify the sex and phenotype of one fly. Two phenotypes have been produced, for a total of four types of flies that need to be sorted. Place the fly in the appropriate sorting container. Continue to identify the sex and phenotype of the F2 offspring. Record the total number of flies. Statistical Methods: This lab used the statistical methods of punnet squares to calculate the ratios of the F1 and F2 generations. In the first cross, we had TT x tt. When homozygous dominant and homozygous recessive are crossed, we get a 1:0 ratio. All of the offspring will be heterozygous and phenotypically tan. When two of these offspring are crossed, we are crossing Tt x Tt. By doing this in a punnet square, we get a 1:2:1 ratio for the genotypes (TT:Tt:tt) and a 3:1 ratio for the phenotypes (Tan:Ebony).

Results: Dependent Variable: There are no dependent variables in this experiment. Independent Variable: There are no independent variables in this experiment. Confounding Variable: The confounding variables in this experiment would be the type of fly used, type of microscope

used, and amount of time allowed to pass. Replication/Sample Size: In this lab, we had two crosses: first, the two parent flies, and then two of their offspring. The cross of the two parent flies created the F1 generation. The cross of the two flies from the F1 generation created the F2 generation. Controls: No controls were used in this experiment. Organize Data:

Eye Color Eye Shape Wing Shape Body Color

Table 1: Traits of P and F1 Generations P Generation F1 Generation Wild Type Ebony Male Female Male Bodied Female Red Red Red Red Oval Oval Oval Oval Normal Normal Normal Normal Tan Ebony Tan Tan

Table 2: Results of First Cross (F1 Generation) Tan Male x Ebony Female Phenotype Number of Flies Tan Female 51 Tan Male 49 Ebony Female 0 Ebony Male 0 Table 3: Second Cross (F2 Generation) Prediction Male Tan Body Ebony Body 40 10 Female Tan Body Ebony Body 40 10 Table 4: Results of Second Cross (F2 Generation) Phenotype Number of Flies

Tan Female Tan Male Ebony-Bodied Female Ebony-Bodied Male

39 37 12 13

Data Analysis: By analyzing the various tables of this experiment, I can observe the ratios of common crosses. When we crossed a homozygous dominant fly and a homozygous recessive fly, we were left with all heterozygous flies. By looking at Table 2, we can see that all of the F1 generation is tan, which proves that crossing homozygous dominant and homozygous recessive will give a dominant phenotype. I predicted that there would be a 4:1 (Tan:Ebony) ratio after the second cross. My prediction was relatively close; the results of the second cross, in Table 4, show a ratio very close to my prediction. The ratio should be 3:1, based on a punnet square cross of two heterozygotes. Conclusion: My hypothesis, that a majority of the F1 and F2 offspring would be wild-type tan flies, was proved correct by the experiment. What we did in this lab was take two flies, one a wild-type tan male and the other an ebony female, and cross them, thus producing the F1 generation. Since the male was homozygous dominant and the female was homozygous recessive, the entire F1 generation was heterozygous. All of these flies showed the dominant tan body color. We then crossed two of these offspring to create the F2 generation. Since the two flies were heterozygous, the offspring would be in a ratio of 1:2:1 (TT:Tt:tt) for the genotype and 3:1 (Tan:Ebony) for the phenotype. Since all of the F1 generation was tan, and three out of four in the F2 generation were tan, my hypothesis was proven right. The majority of the offspring showed the dominant phenotype of tan. The ebony body color disappeared during the F1 generation because we were crossing a homozygous dominant fly and a homozygous recessive fly. The dominant phenotype, tan, overshadowed the recessive phenotype, ebony, because heterozygous dominant flies were produced. In the F2 generation, we crossed two homozygous dominant flies, which produced a 3:1 ratio between the dominant and recessive phenotypes. This means that one out of four flies would have the recessive ebony body color.