An introduction to fruit flies | 台北市立動物園資訊網

Drosophilamelanogasterisasmall,commonflyfoundnearunripeandrottedfruit.Ithasbeeninuseforoveracenturytostudygeneticsandbehavior.Thomas​ ...

This guide is adapted from the University of Arizona Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biophysics General Biology Program for Science Teachers: Drosophila Melanogaster and Mendelian Genetics, by Pete Geiger.

Drosophila melanogaster is a small, common fly found near unripe and rotted fruit. It has been in use for over a century to study genetics and behavior. Thomas Hunt Morgan was the preeminent biologist studying Drosophila early in the 1900’s. He was the first to discover sex-linkage and genetic recombination, which placed the small fly in the forefront of genetic research. Due to it’s small size, ease of culture and short generation time, geneticists have been using Drosophila ever since.

Fruit flies are easily obtained from the wild and many biological science companies carry a variety of different mutations. In addit...