Question

The fruitfly, Drosophila melanogaster was found to be very suitable for experimental verification of chromosomal theory of inheritance by Morgan and his coworkers because

• A. It reproduces parthenogenetically.
• B. It has very short life cycle of about four weeks only.
• C. Smaller female is easily recognizable from larger male.
• D. A single mating produces two young flies.

Answer 1

The correct option is B It has very short life cycle of about four weeks only.

Drosophila melanogaster is a very interesting and powerful model due to its large collection of available genetic tools, short generation time (along with high reproductive rate), and ability to perform large-scale genetic and compound screens, which cannot be developed in other higher animal models due to cost, time and legal or ethical boundaries.