They're Getting Smarter!

[jameslongo]

I have a culture of lab-bred Drosophila melanogster that Olga got from uni. There's an excess for 2nd year fruit fly labs so she was able to pinch some Anywho, the two predominant morphs at the start were 'white eyes' & 'vestigial wings.' They were relatively easy to extract from the bottle, not flying around all that much if some managed to escape. A couple of weeks have passed & gen2 is under way. These guys are predominantly 'wild-type' (red eyes & full wings) & extremely hard to extract! They are faster & far more active than their predecessors. Given the bottle they're kept it, I really need to review my technique to get them out. I almost hesitate to feed my mantids now Wierd, huh?

 

[Rick]

I have found that flies morph back into flying types after awhile.

 

[a1_collection]

I have found that flies morph back into flying types after awhile.

Same. There are always a couple that can fly in my cultures.

 

[jameslongo]

I think you missed my point. The two phenotypes in the culture at the start were 'white eyes; full wings' & 'red eyes; no wings.' The 'red eyed' wild-types, which are the spawn of these two, are more agile than their 'white eyed' parents. Very strange.

 

[Rick]

I think you missed my point. The two phenotypes in the culture at the start were 'white eyes; full wings' & 'red eyes; no wings.' The 'red eyed' wild-types, which are the spawn of these two, are more agile than their 'white eyed' parents. Very strange.

Same thing. THey don't stay the same. We modify them and they change on their own.

 

[superfreak]

if they change on their own then theyre not 'modified' properly.

interestingly, my bottle of white-eye and vest wing mutants have turned into all white eyes. talk about genetic drift ey?

 

[tonyi]

When I was culturing house flies, I had quite a few hideous mutants emerge. Usually albino but a few had very disproportionate bodies and looked plain nasty. That might also have been the result of mismolts, bad hatching or whatever, but it was enough to make me switch to wax moths. They only seem to differ in size, otherwise they're pretty much identical. Good thing they're so incredibly docile that it's not even necessary to breed flightless ones.