A concise Drosophila laboratory module to introduce the central concepts of genetics

The quick generation time, ease of handling, and wide availability of striking phenotypic mutants makes Drosophila melanogaster a highly attractive system to expose undergraduate and advanced high school students to concepts in genetics. However, it is nevertheless very labor intensive to set up Drosophila for a large scale laboratory exercise in a short period of time. The previously developed P{his-hid}Y heat shock system enables a greatly optimized procedure for the collection of virgin females (Venema, 2006; Venema, 2008). Using this system allowed us to develop a short laboratory module that can be completed in only three 2-3 hour long laboratory sessions spaced two weeks apart. This format also permits the Drosophila genetics module to be interspersed with other modules in a single semester laboratory course. This introductory Drosophila genetics laboratory module emphasizes hypothesis-driven scientific inquiry by encouraging students to form their own open-ended questions about the nature of mutations and the pattern in which they are inherited from one generation to the next. The two crosses in the module introduce several important genetics concepts including: Mendelian autosomal inheritance, sex-linked inheritance, recombination, genetic mapping, and non-disjunction. Students are also introduced to the method of using statistical tests to validate or reject biological hypotheses.