Testing the Allelic Strength of Drosophila melanogaster mus109 Alleles
Session Title
Biological Science Research
College
College of Arts and Sciences
Department
Biology
Faculty Mentor
Kathryn Kohl, Ph.D.
Abstract
Drosophila melanogaster, commonly referred to as fruit flies, possess a group of genes that when mutated can cause sensitivity to DNA damaging agents. These mutagen sensitive (mus) genes are likely involved in DNA repair, and one of these genes, mus109, was the focus of this study. To perform the experiment, complementation crosses were set up between the three mus109 alleles: mus109lS, mus109D1 and mus109D2. The wild-type DGRP-59 was used as the control. For each cross, twenty vials were scored. Brood one contained ten vials that were mock treated with distilled water, and brood two contained ten vials that were treated with the alkylating agent methyl methanesulfonate(MMS). The relative survival was calculated as the ratio of mutants and non-mutants in brood 2, normalized to brood 1. An ANOVA analysis indicated that there was not a significant difference in survival rate between the various mus109 allelic combinations. However, ANOVA analysis indicated that the relative survival value for all mus109 alleles was significantly different from wild-type (p<0.0001).
Type of Presentation
Oral presentation
Grant Support?
This project was supported by the SC INBRE grant from the National Institute of General Medical Sciences (8 P20 GM103499) of the National Institutes of Health
Testing the Allelic Strength of Drosophila melanogaster mus109 Alleles
Drosophila melanogaster, commonly referred to as fruit flies, possess a group of genes that when mutated can cause sensitivity to DNA damaging agents. These mutagen sensitive (mus) genes are likely involved in DNA repair, and one of these genes, mus109, was the focus of this study. To perform the experiment, complementation crosses were set up between the three mus109 alleles: mus109lS, mus109D1 and mus109D2. The wild-type DGRP-59 was used as the control. For each cross, twenty vials were scored. Brood one contained ten vials that were mock treated with distilled water, and brood two contained ten vials that were treated with the alkylating agent methyl methanesulfonate(MMS). The relative survival was calculated as the ratio of mutants and non-mutants in brood 2, normalized to brood 1. An ANOVA analysis indicated that there was not a significant difference in survival rate between the various mus109 allelic combinations. However, ANOVA analysis indicated that the relative survival value for all mus109 alleles was significantly different from wild-type (p<0.0001).
