Phenotype Description of Drosophila Essay

The wild type of Drosophila melanogaster phenotype has a three-segmented body, which is yellow-brown with black rings that traverse its abdomen and while having red compound eyes. Comparatively, D. Melanogaster mutant also has a three-segmented yellow-brown body with black rings that traverse its abdomen, but it has dark brown compound eyes. Although the color of the eyes is brown, it changes with time as the fly develops. Newborn males or females of D. melanogaster mutants have red-brown eyes, while adult flies have sepia-like eyes. Moreover, mutants and wild-type flies share the same characteristics that reflect sexual dimorphism. All females have a tag-like tip on the distal end of the dorsal surface, and a striped abdomen, while males have a penis, a dark band at the distal end and sex combs. Like in wild type, males are relatively smaller when compared to their female counterparts in the mutants. Besides these notable differences, male and female mutants have no other significant differences that differentiate them. Given that the mutant has dark-brown eyes, an appropriate name for the mutant is ‘cocoa’ because the color of the eyes and their shape resemble cocoa grains. Additionally, sepia (3-26.0), clout, and brown (2-104.5) are three genes could be responsible for the phenotype of the mutant. Expression of sepia (3-26.0) changes eye color to brown at eclosion then gradually turns dark sepia during the course of maturity. Moreover, ocelli color remains normal despite aging. Similarly, clot causes the eye color to become maroon and turn into a sepia color with age. The final possible gene is brown (2-104.5), as it expresses itself as light brownish wine at eclosion and then it changes to garnet, hence, resembling the eye color change of the new mutant.