Question

Write the scientific name of the organism Thomas Hunt Morgan and his colleagues worked with for their experiment. Explain the correlation between linkage and recombination with respect to genes as studied by them.

Answer 1

Thomas Hunt Morgan and his colleagues worked with fruitfly (Drosophila melanogaster) for their experiment on linkage. He did various experiments on Drosophila melanogaster. He crossed yellow bodied white eyed flies with brown bodied red eyed flies. The F${}_2$ generation did not show 9:3:3:1 ratio. He suggested that this was as a result of linkage. He found that genes for both the characters were placed near by on X chromosomes. Due to this, the chances of recombination are rare and they are transmitted together mostly. He concluded that higher the linkage between two genes, lesser are the chances of recombination.