Name:____________________
Class:_______
Fruit Fly Phenotypes
Lucky for scientists, and maybe not so lucky for fruit flies, there are all kinds of ways
that fly DNA can be mutated to create interesting looking flies. These different visible
traits that result from mutated DNA are called phenotypes.
Wild type
This is the type of female fruit fly you would find in nature. Unlike humans, all
unmutated fruit flies look about the same.
Short Winged
This mutation that makes the fruit flies unable
to fly is a recessive trait, meaning that the fly
won't express the gene unless it gets it from
both parents.
Yellow
This mutation is recessive and causes these
flies to lack dark pigment. It's similar to
albinism.
Curly Winged
This mutation is dominant so the fly only has
to get it from one parent in order to express it.
These flies are unable to fly but they can hop
around.
Ebony
This mutation is also recessive and causes dark
pigment to build up all over the fly’s body.
Name:____________________
Class:_______
Antennapedia
This mutation is dominant and may not be
obvious at first. Look closely, those are not
antennae, those are an extra set of legs coming
out of the fly's head. These fruit flies have a
mutation that tells the body to turn the
antenna into legs during development.
White Eyed
This mutation is recessive and on the sex
chromosome, meaning that males and females
have different numbers of copies of this gene.
Like the orange eyed flies, these flies have
normal eye sight, but one of the genes
responsible for producing the wild-type red
eyes is defective.
Orange Eyed
This mutation is recessive and does not affect
the fly's eyesight. All unmutated flies have red
eyes, so orange eyes indicate a mutation in the
gene that make red pigment.
Eyeless
This mutation is recessive and makes the fly
blind. These flies have a mutation that makes it
so the body is not instructed to make eyes
during development.