Drosophilia Melanogaster Reproduction

Prior honors students conducted research on a population of fruit flies that brought about some questionable results. The results they noted identified many questions that needed to be expounded upon; therefore, I was tasked with mating fruit flies to either prove or disprove the conclusions gathered by honors students before me. Past documentation suggested that genetic mutations of Drosophila melanogaster limited reproductive capability. Specifically, the white-eyed mutation served as the limiting factor that negatively affected offspring production. Dr. Hurley, the General Biology I professor, and I decided that through crossing these flies and observing what occurred we could possible answer our questions. I crossed wild-type fruit flies with white-eyed fruit flies and analyzed patterns in mating and results of reproduction over a ten week period. Staggering differentiations in numbers brought about some eye-opening results that differed from what former honors students denoted. However, some environmental factors and genetic factors are plausibly explanatory of the analytical results my research yielded.