[ernestplutko]

About 15 years ago I bought a culture through the mail of wingless houseflies. They didn't do well and never reproduced and died. Is it possible to still get wingless houseflies?

 

[Ed]

Someone gets some periodically but the mutation isn't stable and the flies tend to revert to winged plus the odor from culturing them in my opinion not worth it.

Ed

 

[james67]

as Ed noted the mutation isnt stable so you dont really find any reputable sources selling them.

there is a "curly wing" variety which is more stable but still prone to reverting. these are available but again not easy to come by.

james

 

[ernestplutko]

I was told by a lab geneticist that she heard that the wingless fruit were a product of someone using x-raying fly eggs or maggots to interfere with wing development. Not a true mutation. May not be true for all the flies available.

 

[hypostatic]

Xrays are a form of ionizing radiation that can case DNA damage if it comes into contact with the molecule. Ionizing radiation can cause breaks in DNA strands, which can lead to base pair rearrangements and deletions, and also chromosome breakage and recombination. It can also cause crosslinking of DNA to proteins or other DNA. All of this can cause mutations (such as flightless or wingless flies).

In fact a common way of inducing genetic mutations in lab animals is through the use of xrays and UV radiation.

 

[Ed]

I was told by a lab geneticist that she heard that the wingless fruit were a product of someone using x-raying fly eggs or maggots to interfere with wing development. Not a true mutation. May not be true for all the flies available.

An induced mutation is still a mutation.. with D. melanogaster, the mutation for wingless or flightless is stable (and can be found in the wild) except for some temperature sensitive protiens temporarily restore flight.
The mutation in the house flies is not stable and prone to reversion.

Ed

 

[ernestplutko]

I believe the geneticist was saying that the x-rays caused damage to developing wings and not mutations. I don't have a firm opinion.

 

[Ed]

Are you sure that you understood the person correctly? X-Ray induced mutations are well known in flies and are a tool used to look for novel mutations in them.

Ed

 

[ernestplutko]

I was Dr. Steen's adviser for biochemistry when she was a PhD candidate so I am assuming that I understand what she says.

 

[hypostatic]

As Ed said, "X-Ray induced mutations are well known in flies and are a tool used to look for novel mutations in them." In fact, Hermann Joseph Muller won the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 1946 for his studies on x-ray mutagenesis, and I think the research was done on flies.

The development of wings in drosophila is well documented and understood. The wingless phenotype is caused my a mutation in the wg (wingless) gene in fruit flies, which codes for a signaling protein that is important in determining cell polarity and establishing body segmentation in flies. Wg is part of the WNT family of signaling proteins, which interact in conjunction with genes in the Hedgehog signaling pathway in order to determine the body plan of developing fruit fly embryos. Here are some links if you want to read up on it:

Interactive Fly, Drosophila
Hedgehog signaling pathway - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Wnt signaling pathway - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Edit:
Also, here is a link to the gene on flybase: http://flybase.org/reports/FBgn0004009.html

 

[Ed]

If I remember correctly (and I might be misremembering) this article provides the correct information. THE ORIGIN OF NINE WING MUTATIONS IN DROSOPHILA it is from 1911.


Ed