Give at least two reasons why the fruit fly, Drosophila melanogaster, is such an

Question

Give at least two reasons why the fruit fly, Drosophila melanogaster, is such an important organism in genetic research? 1. b. 2. What does wild-type mean? 3. What is a gene? 4. What is an allele? 5. What is the difference between a gene and an allele? Give an example of a gene and it's alleles.__ 6. The genetic trait that is studied in this ab is the presence of aldehyde oxidase (AO). What is the function of this enzyme? 7. What color do you expect to see in the assay for aldehyde oxidase if the enzyme is present? 8. What physical characteristics can be used to visually distinguish male and female fruit flies? Use the following information to assign a name for the gene you are studying in this lab: When two alleles are present for a gene, one is called the wild type and the other is the mutation. The wild type is the allele most commonly found in nature and is denoted by a "after the name. In the case of the aldehyde oxidase gene, the presence of the enzyme is considered the wild type and the absence of the enzyme is the mutation. The gene being studied is referred to as the aldex gene because it codes for the enzyme aldehyde oxidase. If the mutation is dominant the first letter of the name is capitalized (i.e. Aldox) and if the mutation is recessive, the name begins with a lower case letter. How would you write the name of the following alleles if the mutation is recessive? 9. wild type mutation

Explanation / Answer

1. Drosophila is an important organism in genetic research because:-

i. It has a very short life span which helps in studying many generations in a short period of time.

ii. They reproduce very quickly. A single female fruitfly produces a hundred eggs every single day.

2. Wild type means a form of gene commonly occuring in a nature in given species. The gene is found in natural and non mutated form in wild type.

3. A gene is a functional unit of heredity. It is a sequence of DNA or RNA which codes for a molecule that contribute to a function.

4. An allele is a variant form of a given gene. It is one of a pair of genes that appear at a particular location on a particular homologous chromosome.

5. Alleles occurs in pairs and are alternative forms of a gene. They are either dominant or recessive. There is no such differentiation in a gene. For eg- Eye colour is determined by a single gene. It has two alternative traits, the colour blue is carried by one allele and green by another allele.

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