Orkin Exterminator & Termite Control

Fruit Fly Chromosomes

Several factors make fruit flies ideal subjects for genetic research. First and foremost, their genetic makeup is incredibly simple. Fruit flies have only four chromosomes: three autosomes and one sex chromosome. As a result, students can mate red and sepia-eyed fruit flies in order to learn firsthand about dominant and recessive genes. Fruit flies are also helpful in studying mutation.

Studying the genetic makeup, transcription and replication of the fruit fly can assist in better understanding these processes in other eukaryotic organisms, such as humans. Fruit flies have been used as research subjects since 1910, when Thomas Hunt Morgan studied them at Columbia University to better understand matters of heredity.

Fruit flies also make excellent research subjects because of their rapid life cycle. This allows scientists to study the effects of stimuli over the course of hundreds of generations within a matter of months.

Fruit Fly Genetics

Mutant Fruit Flies

Biology of Fruit Flies

Fruit Fly Length of Memory