Question

Write the scientific name of the fruit-fly. Why did Morgan prefer to work with fruit-flies for his experiments? State any three reasons.

Answer 1

Hint: The fruit fly is used to research various biological researches for over many years. They can be used in the study of several biological processes such as inheritance, embryonic development, etc.

Complete Answer:
- The scientific name of the fruit-fly is Drosophila melanogaster. The Morgan prefer to work with fruit-fly to study the sex-linked gene in his experiment because of the following reasons-
- Drosophila melanogaster has sex chromosomes similar to that of humans that is females have XX chromosomes and males have XY chromosomes. But their sex determination mechanism is different from that of humans.
- Sex-linked traits such as white eye color and red-eye color are present only in Drosophila melanogaster. Fruit-flies can be safely anesthetized with the help of ether, carbon dioxide gas.
- The white eye color in males is a sex-linked recessive trait.
- Moreover the fruit-flies are readily available and short generation time. Many generations can be studied within a few weeks.

The fruit-flies have a short life span and high reproductive rate. Under laboratory conditions, they can be reared and bred easily. Females can be identified easily from males by their large body size. The fruit-flies can be bred throughout the year. Many generations can be easily obtained.

Note: Drosophila melanogaster species of a fly commonly called fruit fly. It is generally used for biological research. It has only four pairs of chromosomes from which three are autosomes and one pair of sex chromosomes.