Drosophila Flies Research Paper

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One may not realize the importance of oviposition choice in Drosophila flies.Oviposition choice can also be referred to as the area in which Drosophila flies choose to lay their eggs. The decision in which Drosophila are forced to make has a great impact on the life of the future offspring. Before choosing an area to lay their eggs, Drosophila consider factors which include genetics and the environment. In addition to these two factors, the choice of egg laying sites can also be influenced by social interaction (Battesti et al. 2012). In a study completed by Battesti et al., virgin female flies were observed as they communicated with a group of demonstrating, or non-virgin flies. This study came to the realization that virgin flies chose the …show more content…
First, the female non-virgin (demonstrator) flies were trained to favor a certain fruit in which they would eventually lay eggs on, while another group remained untrained and instead were placed with two different fruits to choose from. Next came the transmission phase, in which the virgin flies allowed to interact with the non-virgin flies and were given the choice of strawberries and bananas, to help them decide where to lay their eggs. Lastly, there is the test phase. During the test phase the egg laying sites were measured separately from the demonstrators (non-virgins) and the observers (virgins). The results from the test displayed that the egg site that was most favored was on the banana. With the help of Chou and Richerson, another test was created in order to determine the relationship of the flies who decided to lay eggs on the banana and the non-virgin ratio. In order to obtain results, three types of models were created to correspond. The models used were linear, quadratic and cubic. The linear relationship in virgin flies expresses no bias in social communication, whereas in the non-virgin groups it would show that the egg laying site was chosen based off of each flies own preference for fruit which was guided by the training phase. The quadratic relationship would infer that the virgin and non-virgin flies were influenced by the direct bias due to the observation of other flies in the environment. Lastly, is the cubic relationship which corresponds with the frequency dependent bias, meaning that the flies conformed to the majority group of the non-virgin flies. The results of this experiment show that the virgin flies decision on whether to lay their eggs was based off of what they had learned by socially interacting with the non-virgin demonstrating
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