Evolution of Learning Ability in Fruit Flies Essay -- Biology Fly Dros

Learning & Memory in Fruit FliesScientists have traditionally viewed learning and memory as complex traits in the sense that they are believed to be the net result of various different genetic and environmental factors interacting with one another. As it is not always practical or ethical to purpose human subjects in research, simpler model organisism are often utilise, and drosophila melanogaster (i.e. the take fly) is one of the most well known and well examine in the biological sciences.AbstractTwo thousand fruit flies of the species Drosophilia melanogaster were maintained for six months before any experimenting began. Flies subjected to experimentation were 14 age old and were conditioned to be better learners. Petri dishes filled with pineapple juice and orange juice were used on which the flies could lay their eggs. Quinine was added to one of the juices to human action flies away from that medium. By selecting eggs from the juice that did not contain quinine, flies who had learned to avoid the juice with quinine passed on their learning ability. Subsequent generations of fruit flies did actually become smarter as demonstrated be their ability to more readily differentiate between the quinine medium and the regular medium as well as their ability to remember this association for a longer period of time.Methods experimental Design Base PopulationAll flies used in Mery & Kaweckis experiment were of the species Drosophilia melanogaster. The experimental population was derived from 2000 flies and maintained for six months before any experimenting began. All flies subjected to experimentation were 14 days old. Experimental Evolution DesignBefore any testing was actually con... ... the different genetics of every individual fly, but in general, it is possible to say that it did improve. This proves the stoppage that learning is favored when environmental factors and other cues play a significant role. The experiment also showed that the learning abili ty to modify oviposition substrate choice has carry on correlations with fitness. Single-locus large-effect mutants would be the best approach for this experiment, but the group wanted to simulate learning ability in a natural environment so they chose to use a variegated sample.ReferencesMery, Frederic & Tadeusz J. Kawecki. Experimental evolution of learning ability in fruit flies. Proc.Natl. Acad. Sci. 99.22 (2002) 14274-14279. Papaj, Daniel R. and Emilie C. Snell-Rood. Memory flies sooner from flies that learn faster. Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. 104.34 (2007) 13539-13540.