Drosophila: Fruit Fly Lab

The history of fruit flies is considered a tradition. Research of these flies initially entered labs 100 years ago. Thomas Hunt Morgan, who lived from 1866 to 1945, was the founder of drosophila genetics. Thomas preformed his research in Morgan lab at the Columbia University in 1910. Here was when they found a famous mutation, know as the white-eyed fly. Quite an accomplishment was this discovery, but the end of the 1980's there were 3,000+-recorded mutations. Now drosophila is very popular; so popular, it would be almost impossible to list the number of things that are being done with it. However, fruit-fly research relates to human genetics as well. It conveys that genes were related to proteins, therefore referring to the study the rules of genetic inheritance. Currently, it is used mostly in biology, focusing on how a complex organism matures from a fairly simple fertilized egg (embryonic development).

Aside from the fact that drosophila can be found throughout numerous biology labs, they don't originate in these labs. Drosophila is found all around the world, more species in the tropical regions; whether it is deserts, tropical rainforests, cities, swamps, or alpine zones. More often than not they are found living in habitats that have fermenting or rotting vegetation, caused by various yeasts and bacteria. Breeding environments consist of varies between decaying fruits, plant material, mushrooms, slime fluxes, flowers, etc. These breeding environments initiate the life cycle of the next drosophila generation. Just like humans female fruit flies produce eggs and males produce sperm. When the egg and sperm join, the egg becomes fertilized and starts to develop. In fruit flies, sperm is deposited from the male fruit fly into the female fruit fly, enabling the female to store sperm inside of her. The eggs are fertilized when they pass through the oviduct on their way to being placed in a food source. Fruit flies begin their lives as an embryo in an egg. This