|
The X-Flies!
Fruit flies are the geneticist's prized pet, and not just because they're small and cuddly. Fruit flies are masters of reproduction. In a fruit fly population, new generations appear within weeks. So they're REAL easy to study for how traits are inherited from generation to generation.
In 1927, Dr. Hans "the Mauler" Muller decided that, cuddly or not, mutating fruit flies |
|
would be handy for studying traits. So he zapped a bunch of them with X-rays, and took a
|
 |
peek at their offspring.
He noticed that, while the rays seemed to have no effect on the flies, their offspring were crazy mutants!
"The Mauler" was not doing this simply for |
|
kicks. First of all, it helped him speed up gene mapping (see Gene Maps). Furthermore, he demonstrated that outside forces like X-rays could change or "mutate" genes. Most likely, these forces were responsible for the evolution of species.
We're talkin' Darwin, baby!
|
 |
|
back to the timeline
|
|