Fruit Fly Lab Report

This experiment that was executed was about breeding fruit flies (Drosophila). The purpose of this experiment was to further understand autosomal and sex linked traits. The reason that fruit flies were used was due to the minimal cost, the minimal space they take up, their simple living requirements, and their short lifespan. We crossed females with wings and sepia eyes, which was a mutation, and apterous males with red eyes. The absence of wings is also a mutation. The question of the experiment was whether these mutations were because of autosomal inheritance or sex-linked inheritance. The hypothesis was that neither trait was sex linked. It was believed that the sepia eyes and the absence of wings were autosomal recessive traits and that red

The hypothesis stated that neither trait was sex-linked and that the sepia eyes and the absence of wings were autosomal recessive traits and that red eyes and the presence of wings were autosomal dominant traits. According to the data, it can be concluded that this hypothesis was incorrect. However, both the group data and the class data were found to be flawed, and the hypothesis was actually correct. The results should have shown that these traits were autosomal and that the ratio of the phenotypes should have been 9:3:3:1. However, the class total ratio was 30:5.5:7.4:1 and the group total ratio was 39:4:10:1. One of the key observations that were made is that all of the F1 flies were red-eyed and had wings. This is because the parent flies that were put into the vial were homozygous for both traits. This caused the F1 flies to be heterozygous for both traits, and it caused the F2 flies to show all four phenotypes. The main major error that was made during the lab was the data. The data was wrong and should have been different. This had a major impact on our result. As per the statistical analysis, the hypothesis created was incorrect, but the data was so far off, that our hypothesis was deemed incorrect when it is in