Question

Fruit flies are commonly used in genetic investigations that focus on traits passed from parents to offspring over several generations. What can you infer is the reason fruit flies are the most commonly used organism for this type of investigation?

Answer 1

The fruit fly (Drosophila ) is one of the most well understood of all the model organisms.

Answer 2

Answer:

Fruit flies or Drosophila melanogaster is used as a model organism in genetic investigations. It is because fruit flies have many properties such as:

1. Short life-span: After fertilization, an embryo can develop into an adult in approximately 10 days only. It enables the researcher to get the results or observations in short period of time.
2. High progeny number: It increases the number of observations and thus increases the reliability of the experiment.
3. Short genome: The entire genome of fruit flies is constituted in 4 chromosomes only. In addition, their whole genome has been sequenced successfully in the year 2000.
4. Anatomical features: The anatomical features of fruit flies are easy to characterize such as eye color, wing type etc. In addition, these characters can be easily observed under the microscope. It helps a researcher in screening process.
5. Culture requirement: They require small space, food, funding etc due to their small size.
6. They show few similar behavior to humans such as sleeping, eating, mating etc. It helps in determining the effects of genetics on human behavior.