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Biology 211 includes a significant amount of lab work. Students are given fruit flies at the beginning of the semester and learn to maintain fly cultures over the following weeks. The flies acquired by students have particular mutations that affect eye color. By setting up various matings, students determine the mode of inheritence of these mutant genes (recessive/dominant/ autosomal/sex-linked), the number of genes involved in the mutant trait, the fitness of the mutants relative to normal flies, and the actual chromosome that contains the mutant gene(s). These experiments will require independent work outside of scheduled lab times.
In addition to carrying out the various fly matings, students will also engage in several other experiments including:
Monitoring the Effect of Colchicine on Mitosis
Screening Blood for Sickle-Cell Anemia with Agarose Gel
Electrophoresis
Isolation of Genomic DNA from Plants
Using PCR to Create DNA Fingerprints
Students will also learn to how to analyze their data with the Chi-square test and Student's t-test
Answers to chapter 10 problems
How do you conduct fly experiments
without the FlyNap?
Visit the
Virtual Fly Lab
Read the original announcement about Cloning Dolly
Read the original Nature paper by Watson and Crick describing the double helix model of DNA
Interactive Fly - a cyberspace guide to Drosophila genes and their roles in development
The Story of Doug. A nice parable highlighting the power of genetics in comparison to biochemistry.
The Cell Cycle
MPF lecture figures
DNA replication lecture figures
Colon cancer lecture figures
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