Drosophila

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Date:18/01/2024

Experiment-5.

# Aim:-

Cell as experimental models: Study life cycle of animal models drosophila.

# Materials required:-

 Culture tubes, Drosophila flies, Sugar, Yeast extract, corn powder, agar agar, propionic acid, p-
aminobenzoic acid Dissecting Microscope, Brush

Theory:-

 Model organisms:-

A model Organism is a widely studied species that is easy to maintain and breed in a laboratory setting
and has particular experimental benefits. These organisms are used to gain information regarding other
species that are difficult to understand.

“Genetic model organism”, “Experimental model organism”, and “Genomic model organism” are three
different kind of model Organism. For instance, understanding the course of a particular disease in
humans might take a long time. But a model Organism has the ability to rapidly develop a disease and its
symptoms which further helps the scientist to learn and understand the disease in a short span.

 Characteristics features of modern Organism:-

*Rapid maturity.

*Easy manipulation.

*Short lifespan.

*Ability to reproduce large number of offspring.

 Advantages of model Organism

*Many model Organism have ability to reproduce in vast numbers.

*Mutant allows scientists to investigate certain traits or diseases.

*Some model Organism contain gene or genome that are similar to human’s.

*To build highly detailed genetic maps, model Organism can be used.
*Short generation time, multiple generation can be observed at the same time.

*It helped to identify SNP’s in different Organism.

 Few example of model organisms are:-

1. Drosophila- It is used to study development genetics.

2. Rat- These are used due to anatomical, physiological, and genetic similarity to humans.

3. E-Coli- It is used to study molecular genetics.

4. Saccharomyces cerevisiae- It is used because of its easy gene manipulation and close relatedness to
higher eukaryotes.

 Drosophila as a model Organism:-

Drosophila melanogaster commonly known as fruit fly, has been extensively studied for over a century,
as a model Organism for genetic investigation. Drosophila melanogaster Is classified in the family:
Drosophilidae and order: Diptera. They are found near ripe fruit. In the wild, adults and larvae feed on
yeast and bacteria growing on rotting fruit. In lab they can feed on the yeast cell growing on a high
carbohydrate prepared diet. Drosophila melanogaster are called as ‘Cinderella of genetics’ because of
their short lifespan of only 12 days, easy to culture and multiple progenies are generated in a single
reproduction.

History of drosophila:-

Drosophila melanogaster, described by Meigen in 1830, appears to have originated in sub-Saharan


Africa (Lachaise et al., 1988). The first out-of-Africa habitat expansion of Drosophila melanogaster is
thought to have occurred between 10,000 and 15,000 years ago, when it moved to Europe and Asia
(David and Capy, 1988). Thomas hunt Morgan (1866-1945) developed Drosophila as a model system in
1909. Morgan, along with his students made some of the most important discovery in genetic through
their work with drosophila.

Advantages of Drosophila melanogaster as a model Organism:-

1. They have a short life cycle of just two weeks at 25°C and short generation time.

2. Produce high amount of offspring.

3. Genetic factors also make this fly an ideal model organism. Drosophila melanogaster only has four
pairs of chromosomes compared to 23 pairs in humans. This simplicity was one of the reasons why they
were first used in genetic studies; Drosophila genes could be mapped easily to investigate genetic
transmission.

4. Drosophila melanogaster has anatomical features (such as wings and eyes) which allow for easy
characterization. These genetic markers can be easily identified under a microscope.

5. Ready availability: to it is cheap and easy to keep large number of the fruit fly in the lab.
∆. Life cycle of drosophila melanogaster

 Life cycle of Drosophila melanogaster:-

Fruit flies are holometabolous insects that are they undergo complete metamorphosis during their life
cycle. The life cycle consists of four distinct stages: eggs, larva, pupa and adult.

The rate of development is dependent on temperature, being more rapid at higher temperature. For
instance, at 20°C, the life cycle is completed in 14 or 15 days but at 25°C, the cycle lasts about 10 days.

Mating and eggs:

Mated female stores sperm to fertilize eggs that are subsequently laid. Therefore to ensure that the
desired crosses achieve, it is necessary to place females that are virgins with their intended male mates.
Female flies are unable to meet for several hours after they have enclosed as adult from their pupa
cases. Therefore virgin females can be obtained by clearing all of the flies from a while and collecting all
newly enclosed female several hours later. They can be kept separated from mail for several days until
needed for cross.

Oviposition by the female starts as early as the second day after its emergence from its pupa cases. It
increases for about a week until a female adult may be laying 50-75 eggs per day for a total of
approximately 400-500 eggs in 10 days.

(*)Larva:
Larva is wide segmented, worm shaped borrower with black mouth parts in the narrower head region.
For tracheal breathing it has a pair of spiracle (air intakes) at both the anterior and posterior end. Since
insect skin will not stretch, the young small larva must periodically shed their skin cuticle in order to
reach adult size. There are two such molts in drosophila larva development that are accompanied by
shedding of the mouth part as well as the skin.

During each period between molts, the larva is called an instar i.e. the first instar is between hatching
and the first molt. Both the size of the larva and the number of teeth or the dark colored jaw holes are
an indication of which instar the larva has reached. After the second molt, the larva feed until ready to
pupate. At this stage, the larva crawls out of the food medium onto a relatively dry place, ceases moving
and events its anterior breathing spiracle.

(*)Pupa:

Soon after entering its anterior spiracles, the larval body shortens and the cuticle become hardened and
pigmented. A headless and wingless prepupa performs. This stage is followed by the formation of the
pupa with everted head, wing pad and legs.

(*)Adult:

Adults exhibit a typical insect anatomy, including compound eyes, three-part bodies (head, thorax and
abdomen) wings and six jointed legs. The various types of bristles and hair found on the body are
characters that we use to identify different phenotypes of flies.

∆. Time stamps in the life cycle of drosophila

 Culture handling:-

The colony used media for various Drosophila stock maintenance include Agar, east, maize flour, sugar,
nipagin and propionic acid.

Preparing Drosophila media:

 Agar is added to the hot water following this yeast, maize flour and sugar is added.

 After 20 to 30 minutes of cooking, heat should be turned off.

 Once media temperature reaches close to 50°C, nipagin and propionic acid could be added.

 Throughout the preparation food needs to be constantly stirred.


Mix powder, brown sugar and dried yeast are used as food. Yeast holds special nutritional value for
Drosophila while nipagin is antifungal in nature and propionic acid is bactericidal and functions as
preservative and this increases the shelf life of food.

The food could be immediately transferred to the sterilized vials or bottles. As soon as the media starts
hardening the vials or bottles need to be covered properly with the help of a cheese cloth or cotton plug.
The food could be used after a day.

Environment:

The optimum rearing conditions is a temperature of 25°C and 60% humidity. In these conditions
generation time is shorter (9 to 10 days from egg to adult).

 Features to determine sex of adult fruit fly:-

1. Size of adult- Female is generally larger than male.

2. Shape of abdomen- Tip of abdomen is elongated in the female and somewhat more rounded in the
male.

3. Markings on the abdomen- Alternating dark and light bands can be seen on the entire rear position
of the female; the last few segments of the male are fused. The abdomen of female has seven
segments that are readily visible with low power magnifiers whereas that of female has five.

4. External genitalia on abdomen- Located at the tip of the abnormal, the ovipositor of the female is
pointed. The claspers of the male are darkly pigmented, arranged in circular form and located just
vertical to the tip.

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