Drosophila melanogaster

Classification
Domain : Eukarya
Kingdom : Animalia
Phylum : Arthropoda
Class : Insecta
Order : Diptera
Suborder : Brachycera
Family : Drosophilidae
Subfamily: Drosophilinae
Genus : Drosophila ("dew lover")
Species : melanogaster ("dark gut")
 Drosophila melanogaster
 Bilaterally symmetric segmented body
 Head
 Thorax
 Abdomen
 Introduction
 Dipteran insect.
 Sexually dimorphic and both sexes display
various morphological differences in primary and
secondary sexual characters.
 Morgan was the first to discover sex-linkage
and genetic recombination, which placed the
small fly in the forefront of genetic research.
 Flies have a short generation time (10-12 days)
and do well at room temperature.
 Contd…

 Exhibits complete metamorphosis.

 Females are about 2.5 millimeters (0.1 inches)
long.
 Males are slightly smaller and the back of their
bodies is darker.
 The compound eye of the fruit fly contains 800 unit
eyes or ommatidia (8 photoreceptor cells , support
cells, pigment cells, and a cornea).
 It has only four pairs of chromosomes: three
autosomes, and one sex chromosome.
 Drosophila natural history

 Originated in Africa.
 Probably spread by
human activity.
 Likes compost, rotting
fruit, yeast.
 Harmless (mostly).
 Strains collected
subsequently have P
transposable elements
and can’t easily be used.
 Life Cycle
 The Drosophila life cycle
consists of a number of
stages:
 Embryogenesis
 Three larval stages
 A pupal stage, and
 An adult stage.
 The lifespan is about 30
days at 29 °C (84 °F).
 Females can lay up to
100 eggs/day.
 Life cycle of Drosophila
4 stages: embryo, larva, pupa, adult

Culture condition: 250C and 60% humidity

 Contd…
 The mean durations of development in the
pupae were measured at combinations of 6
constant temperatures (15, 20, 22.5, 25, 27.5
and 30°C)
 And up to 11 levels of relative humidity.
 The thermal survival range for the pupae is
between 15 and 30°C, and the humidity viable
range is between 60 and 100% RH.
Early development of Drosophila

Rapid division
8 mins/division
13 divisions asynchronous
9 divisions

Single cell
Life cycle by Day
Day 0 : Female lays eggs
Day 1 : Eggs hatch
Day 2 : First instar (one day in
length)
Day 3 : Second instar (one day
in length)
Day 5 : Third and final instar
(two days in length)
Day 7 : Larvae begin roaming
stage. Pupariation (pupal
formation) occurs 120 hours
after egg laying
Day 11-12: Eclosion (adults
emerge from the pupa case)
Different stages of development
 Embryogenesis in Drosophila
 Mitosis begins following fertilization
 First ten divisions include no growth and
Cytokinesis
 Single multinucleate cell results - syncytium,
or syncytial blastoderm.
 At the tenth nuclear division,
the nuclei migrate to the periphery
of the embryo.
 At the thirteenth division, so nuclei
are partitioned into separate cells.
This stage is the cellular blastoderm.
 Gene activation
 The genes that code for mRNAs are called
maternal effect genes (bicoid and nanos) are
required during oogenesis
 One group of maternal effect genes establishes
the anterior-posterior axis of the embryo
 Another set of maternal effect genes establishes
the dorsal-ventral axis
 Regulates the expression of the gap genes.
 Female flies possessing mutations in maternal
effect genes appear phenotypically normal, but
produce offspring with mutant phenotypes
 Maternal effect genes
 Maternal genes by group
Anterior group
Bicoid – “egg-polarity gene”
Bicoid interacting protein 1
Exuperantia
Staufen etc.
Posterior group
Oskar(assembly of germplasm)
Terminal group
capicua
corkscrew
 Bicoid gene
 Concentrated at anterior end of fly embryo
 Gradient of gene product
 Essential for setting up
anterior end of fly
 Gradients of other proteins
determine the posterior end
and the dorsal-ventral axis
 The bicoid genes are
transcription factors
 Regulate the expression of
some of the embryo’s genes
 Conversion of Maternal Protein Gradients into
Zygotic Gap Gene Expression

Transcription factor
 Gastrulation
 The mesodermal tube forms from ventral tissue
then cells separate & move to internal locations
under the ectoderm.
 The mesoderm becomes muscle and connections
tissues.
 In insects, the nerve cord lies ventrally .
 Neuroblasts form a layer between mesoderm and
outer ectoderm.
 The midgut (anterior & posterior) grow from
threads and fuse.
 Ectoderm becomes epidermis.
 No cell division occurs during gastrulation but
division restarts afterward.
 Contd…

 Seven other events resembling Gastrulation

are listed below:

 1) formation of the cephalic furrow

 2) formation of dorsal transverse folds
 3) germ band extention
 4) germ band retraction
 5) segmentation
 6) dorsal closure
 7) head involution
The sequential expression of different sets of genes establishes the body plan along the anterior-posterior axis

The sequential expression of different sets of genes establishes the body plan along the
anterior-posterior axis
Localized mRNA and
Proteins Translated after
fertilization—

Positional information to
activate zygotic genes

Temporal sequence

parasegment

Pattern in the segment

Segment identities
 Segmentation
 The germband (ventral blastoderm) is the main
trunk region.
 The process of germ band extension pushes the
posterior end over dorsal side.
 The first signs of segmentation grooves appear
to outline parasegments which give rise to
segments.
 Segments are formed from the posterior of one
parasegment and the anterior of the next.
 There are 14 parasegments:  3 mouth, 3 thorax,
and 8 abdominal.
Segmentation
 Segmentation genes
 Three sets of segmentation genes are activated
sequentially
 Gap genes
 Pair-rule genes
 Segment polarity genes
 The activation of these sets of genes defines the
animal’s body plan
 Each sequential set regulates Genes of embryo
 Expression regulated by products of egg-polarity
genes
 Direct the actual formation of segments after the
embryo’s major axes are defined
 Involved in the segment patterning.
 Gap genes
 The gap genes roughly subdivide the embryo along
the anterior/posterior axis
 Map out basic subdivisions along the embryo’s
anterior-posterior axis
 Mutations cause “gaps” in the animal’s segmentation
 Pair-rule genes
 Define pattern in terms of pairs of segments
 The pair-rule genes divide the embryo into pairs of
segments.
 Mutations result in embryos having half the normal
number of segments
 Gap genes Pair-rule genes

 Buttonhead  even-skipped
 hunchback  fushi tarazu
 caudal  odd-paired
 collier  odd skipped
 empty spiracles  paired
 Krüppel  runt
 orthodenticle  sloppy paired Tenascin
 knirps major
 Segment polarity genes
 Set the anterior-posterior
axis of each segment
 Mutations produce
segments where part of the
segment mirrors another
part of the same segment
 Summary

 Products of the egg-polarity genes regulate the

regional expression of the gap genes
 Gap genes control the localized expression of
the pair-rule genes
 Pair rule genes activate specific segment
polarity genes in different parts of each
segment
 Segment polarity genes activate homeotic genes
 HOMEOTIC GENES
 Master regulatory genes
 Encode transcription factors
 Control the expression of genes responsible for
specific anatomical structures
 Mutations produce flies with structures in incorrect
places
 HOMEOTIC GENES
 Homeotic genes of Drosophila all possess
homologous segments
 180-nucleotide sequence = homeobox
 Encodes 60-amino-acid homeodomain
 Homologous sequences have been found in
many other animals
 e.g., Insects, nematodes, mollusks, fish, frogs,
birds, humans, etc.
 Related genes are even found in yeast, etc.
 Hox genes
 Larvae
 The larvae hatch at 24 hrs
post-fertilization.
1. The anterior end is the acron.
2. The posterior end is the
telson.
 Along with the head, the
larvae has 3 thoracic segments
and 8 abdominal segments.
 The ventral side of the larvae
has denticle belts, alternating
patches of denticle hairs and
cuticle on each segment, used
for locomotion.
 Developmental stages
 Larva eventually forms a pupa
 Enclosed in a case
 Metamorphosis occurs
 Change from larva to adult fly
 Adult fly emerges from case
 Each segment is anatomically
distinct
 Metamorphosis
 Three instar stages of larval life are separated by
molts.
1st instar   -->    2nd instar -->    3rd instar
 Third instar larvae forms pupae (pupation) to
undergo metamorphosis.
 The adult tissues arise from imaginal discs and
histoblasts.
 The imaginal discs are small sheets of epidermis
(~40 cells each of cellular blastoderm) which grow
throughout larval life.
 6 leg, 2 wing, 2 haltere, 2 eye-antenna, plus genital,
head discs and ~10 histoblasts.
 FlyBase
 FlyBase provides an integrated view of the
fundamental genomic and genetic data on the major
genetic model D.melanogaster and related species.
 FlyBase has primary responsibility for the continual
reannotation of the D. melanogaster genome.
 The ultimate goal of the reannotation effort is to
decorate the euchromatic sequence of the genome
with as much biological information as is available
from the community and from the major genome
project centers.
 FlyBase entries include maps, gene products and
ontologies, structured phenotypic and gene
expression data, and anatomy.
Thank
you