Definition of drosophila melanogaster Drosophila melanogaster
We found 2 definitions of drosophila melanogaster from 2 different sources.
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What does drosophila melanogaster mean?
WordNet
Noun |
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| drosophila melanogaster - small fruit fly used by Thomas Hunt Morgan in studying basic mechanisms of inheritance | ||
| drosophila, Drosophila melanogaster | ||
| fruit fly, pomace fly any of numerous small insects whose larvae feed on fruits | ||
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Wikipedia 
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"Drosophila melanogaster" is a small, common fly found near unripe and rotted fruit. It has been in use for over a century to study genetics and lends itself well to behavioral studies.
History.
Thomas Hunt Morgan was the preeminent biologist studying Drosophila early in the 1900's. Morgan was the first to discover sex-linkage and genetic recombination, which placed the small fly in the forefront of genetic research. Due to it's small size, ease of culture and short generation time, geneticists have been using "Drosophila" ever since. It is one of the few organisms whose entire genome is known and many genes have been identified.
Life.
Fruit flies are easily obtained from the wild and most biological science companies carry a variety of different mutations. In addition these companies sell any equipment needed to culture the flies. Costs are relatively low and most equipment can be used year after year. There are a variety of laboratory exercises one could purchase, although the necessity to do so is questionable.
