BioSci 355 Honors Genetics
Fall Term 2013
The Virtual Flylab
This is the first and only course at the University of Pittsburgh to have a “Virtual Lab” component, in
which we will be doing all “experiments” by computer simulation. Our experiments will use the fruitfly,
Drosophila melanogaster. These exercises are required for this course.
The exercises have been tested with Explorer and Firefox. I have not personally tested with Safari,
Chrome, Opera.
You will be using a Website called the Virtual Flylab. Once you have started your browser, you can
access the Flylab as follows:
Use the menu item File and select Open Location. When a box appears, type in the following:
http://biologylab.awlonline.com/FlyLab
Caution: This address is case-sensitive!!
You will need a username and password to access this site. The University has purchased a license to
allow you access. Please see the instructor to get your username and password. Please write your
username and password in a secure place and do not give your username or password to anyone else.
When you reach the screen entitled "FlyLab Introduction", you can most rapidly access the actual
experiments by clicking on the box that says "Start Lab". Note: Be patient while the Java applet loads
— the machine you think is frozen probably isn't! When the applet window opens, you can set up a
cross between two flies, each of which can have any desired combination of mutations by using the
"Design" buttons. You can choose only one allele per trait (e.g., only one eye color, etc.). You will see
pictures of the mutant flies on the screen. The following nine traits and 29 mutant phenotypes are
available for exploration:
Bristles
Body
Color
Antenna Eye
e
Color
Eye
Shape
Wing
Size
Wing
Shape
Wing
Veins
Wing
Angle
wt
wt
wt
wt
wt
wt
wt
wt
forked
black
aristapedia brown
bar
apterous
curly
crossveinless dichaete
shaven
ebony
purple
eyeless
miniature
curved
incomplete
singed
sable
sepia
lobe
vestigial
dumpy
spineless
tan
white
star
stubble
yellow
wt
scalloped
You will then get a report on the phenotypes of the offspring (with pictures!) and the numbers counted
for each phenotype. Next, you can choose flies from among the progeny for the next mating, see their
progeny, etc. This is more or less what you would do in a real genetics lab, except that you don't get to
inhale the ether or chase loose flies around the room.
I encourage you to play around with the Virtual Flylab to learn how it works. Throughout the term, you
will get specific assignments to do “experiments”, and to analyze and report your data.