Why is Drosophila called Cinderella of genetics?

It is used by the scientist for experimental studies because of the short life cycle, easy to culture, single reproduction produces large number of progeny, the genome can be mutated easily. The genome of Drosophila has only four chromosomes typically in a haploid set useful in genetic studies.

Drosophila is also known as the ‘Cinderella of Genetics’ and the ‘Queen of Genetics’. Whatever genetic principles we learn from Drosophila are extendable, in principle, to many other plant and animal systems, including human beings.

Genetic manipulation melanogaster only has four pairs of chromosomes compared to 23 pairs in humans. This simplicity was one of the reasons why they were first used in genetic studies; Drosophila genes could be mapped easily to investigate genetic transmission.

Drosophila melanogaster, known colloquially as the fruit fly, remains one of the most commonly used model organisms for biomedical science. … These tools allow researchers to maintain complex stocks with multiple mutations on single chromosomes over generations, an advance that made flies the premier genetic system [4].

Drosophila derived from the Greek word drósos means dew loving. They belong to the Droso–philidae family; and are most frequently known as fruit flies or often called vinegar, wine or pomace flies.

Note: Gregor Mendel (1822- 1884) is widely considered as the father of experimental genetics for his pioneer work in the field of genetics. He experimented on pea plants (Pisum Sativum) and discovered the basic rules of inheritance of genes.

Arabidiopsis thaliana (cruciferae) is called Drosophila of plant kingdom. It is the first plant to have its entire genome sequenced. It is also known as wall cress, mouse-ear cress or thale cress.

Pleiotropy (from Greek πλείων pleion, ‘more’, and τρόπος tropos, ‘way’) occurs when one gene influences two or more seemingly unrelated phenotypic traits. Such a gene that exhibits multiple phenotypic expression is called a pleiotropic gene.

A novel phenotype is a phenotype that is concerned with the unique visual appearance of an organism as compared with its parents.

The Drosophila melanogaster complete genome sequence was published in 2000. It contains 180 Mb (one third of which is centric heterochromatin) and approximately 14,000 protein-coding genes.

Note that virgin females are much larger than older females and do not have the dark coloration of mature females. In addition, in the early hours after eclosure, there will be visible a dark greenish spot (the meconium, the remains of their last meal before pupating) on the underside of the abdomen.

While drosophila only have a total of 4 chromosomes, they too display sexual dimorphism, with females carrying the double X chromosomes and males carrying XY. The two X chromosomes in female fruit flies, as in mammals, make them a homozygous sex as compared with the XY condition in males, known as heterozygous.

– Drosophila just has four homologous pairs of chromosomes in which three are autosomes and one pair of sex chromosomes. – X chromosome is responsible for the eye color in Drosophila.

Father of Biology and Zoology – Aristotle.

Advanced at the beginning of the 20th century by Dutch botanist and geneticist Hugo de Vries in his Die Mutationstheorie (1901–03; The Mutation Theory), mutation theory joined two seemingly opposed traditions of evolutionary thought.

Arabidopsis thaliana is known as Drosophila of the Plant kingdom.

Though Aspergillus now does not belong to plant kingdom and they belong to Kingdom fungi, still previouly they were studied under plant kingdom and the name guinea pig is given to any organism with which much experimental work is done.

Neurospora, an ascomycete, is used extensively in biochemical and genetic work. It is often called “Drosophila of plant kingdom.”

From the insights of the sequencing of the human genome, it is estimated that chromosome 1 which is the largest human chromosome has the maximum number of genes (around 3168 genes), while chromosome Y has the least number of genes (around 344 genes).

Like eye color, skin color is an example of polygenic inheritance. This trait is determined by at least three genes and other genes are also thought to influence skin color. The genes that determine skin color have two alleles each and are found on different chromosomes. …

About 80 per cent of the normal variation in human height is the result of inherited genetic differences between people, with the rest of the height difference being due to environmental influences, such as diet or upbringing.

Epistasis is an interaction at the phenotypic level of organization. The genes that are involved in a specific epistatic interaction may still show independent assortment at the genotypic level. In such cases, however, the phenotypic ratios may appear to deviate from those expected with independent assortment.

A phenotype is an individual’s observable traits, such as height, eye color, and blood type. The genetic contribution to the phenotype is called the genotype. Some traits are largely determined by the genotype, while other traits are largely determined by environmental factors.

Recessive epistasis: when the recessive allele of one gene masks the effects of either allele of the second gene. • Dominant epistasis: when the dominant allele of one gene masks the effects of either allele of the second gene.

These chromosomes are found in several cell types, the function of which is principally secretory. In Drosophila, the most useful are found in the larval salivary glands.

Virgin flies are needed to make sure that that the crosses are being appropriately made with the females using the desired sperms to fertilize their eggs. Female Drosophila are considered virgin eight to ten hours after they hatch from their pupa because during that time they are not receptive to male companionship and …

Rubbing Behavior Flies rub their limbs together to clean them. This may seem counterintuitive given these insects’ seemingly insatiable lust for filth and grime, but grooming is actually one of their primary activities.

Explanation: Somatic cells are diploid, which means they have two sets of chromosomes, one set from the mother and one set from the father. The somatic cells of fruit flies contain eight chromosomes, which means they have two sets of four chromosomes. Meiosis is the process by which sex cells are produced.

THE dot chromosome, or F element, of Drosophila melanogaster is unique in that it has many characteristics of heterochromatin, yet maintains a typical euchromatic gene density in its 1.3-Mb long arm. The basic karyotype of Dipterans consists of six distinct genomic elements, named A through F by Muller (1940).

Drosophila telomeres use arrays of retrotransposons to maintain chromosome length, while nearly all other eukaryotes rely on telomerase-generated short repeats. Regardless of the DNA sequence, several end-binding proteins are evolutionarily conserved.

Thomas Hunt Morgan was the first person to discover linkage in Drosophila. Morgan went through several dihybrid crosses in Drosophila for the study of sex-linked genes.

The number of linkage groups present in an individual corresponds to the number of chromosomes in its one genome. Fruit-fly Drosophila melanogaster has four linkage groups (4 pairs of chromosomes).

Explanation: In fruit fly, there are four pair of chromosomes: three are autosomal pairs and one pair of sex chromosomes. Genes present on one chromosome form a linkage group. Homologous chromosomes carry same set of genes (the alleles may differ), hence same linkage group.