lab report
Maria Castro 
1538048335153_DocumentingindependentassortmentandgeneticlinkageinDrosophilamelanogasterr.docxDocumenting independent assortment and genetic linkage in Drosophila melanogaster
Your Name
BIOL 3251 Genetics-Section Number
Lab Instructor’s First and Last Name
Date of Submission of Report
Lab Partners
Introduction
The branch of biology that is concerned with the heredity and variations is known as genetics (Cumming and Klug, 2000). Mendel had succeeded where as many others had failed when it came to genetics. Mendelian inheritance illustrate that one of two possible alleles for a trait contribute by each parent but in non-Mendelian inheritance traits do not segregate according to Mendel’s Law (Ven Hyningen and V Yeyati, 2004). In this project we set out to describe and study about the gene linkage of the different mutant lines and independently assortment of these mutated genes of Drosophila melanogaster in which allele of different genes assort independently during gametes formation (Campbell and Reece, 2002). Gene linkage describes about the chromosome of the eukaryotic individual that whether it constitute two or more genes on a same chromosome or not.
Drosophila melanogaster which is commonly known as Fruit fly has been used in genetics as a model organism for over century due to its small size, easy to grow and short generation time. Thomas Morgan was the first one to study on Drosophila in 1900 and it is one of those whose genetic make-up is known. Another reason for the importance of Drosophila is that they are dimorphic sexually i-e male and female are different making it easy to differentiate between sexes.
Three mutant lines were selected for this study which includes Apterous White, Apterous Sepia, and Vestigial Brown. Gene for vestigial wings is located upon chromosome number 2. Apterous gene is also located in the chromosomes number 2 along with the pigmentation gene. None of the gene is located on X chromosome so X linked inheritance pattern is not expected to be observed. As Apterous gene mutation is recessive so hypothesised inheritance pattern for this is autosomal linked recessive. Similarly, vestigial wings gene is also located in autosomal chromosome and this mutation is too recessive so its hypothesised inheritance pattern will also be autosomal linked recessive.
References
1. Van Heyningen V, Yeyati PL (2004). "Mechanisms of non-Mendelian inheritance in genetic disease"
2. Hypothesis Formation for Genetics 3251 Fruit Fly Lab Report
