Rachel Hanson
BIOL 335-204
7 October 2015
Determining mode of inheritance for eyeless mutation in Drosophila melanogaster
Abstract:
The purpose of this experiment is to determine the mode of inheritance for the eyeless mutation in Drosophila melanogaster, whether it be autosomal or sex-linked. I hypothesized that the eyeless mutation in Drosophila melanogaster is inherited autosomal recessively. My experimental procedures included running several test crosses using FlyLab. My first cross was between an eyeless male and a wild-type female. For my second cross I followed the reciprocal cross guidelines and switched the attributes …show more content…
In 1886 a monk named Mendel began his studies on pea plants (J. Brooker, 18). His work suggests that there is one trait that is dominant over another, this other one being recessive. These traits are contained within chromosomes, which can be either autosomal or sex chromosomes (J. Brooker, 64). I hypothesized that the mode of inheritance for the eyeless mutation would be autosomal recessive because it is most common in any …show more content…
This method required a computer with internet access and the proper software to run FlyLab. For each cross I simply designed the fly according to my crosses and mated them. Each cross contained approximately 1000 flies in the population. First I crossed an eyeless male with a wild-type female. For this cross I did an F1 and F2 generation. The F1 results showed dominance versus recessive. I used the Punnett squares to find the ratios for my expected data within each population and to help calculate chi-squared values in the F2 generations. In my second cross I bred a wild-type male and an eyeless female. For this cross I repeated procedures in order to find the F1 and F2 generations and find expected data for both autosomal and