| The chromosomes of the fruit fly, Drosophila melanogaster, lend themselves well to genetic experimentation. There are only 4 pairs—one of which, marked here with Xs and Ys, determines the fly’s sex—versus the human complement of 23 pairs. In addition, the fly chromosomes themselves are large. Thomas Hunt Morgan and his associates based their theory of heredity on studies using Drosophila. They found that chromosomes were passed from parent to offspring in a way that Gregor Mendel ascribed to genes. They proposed, correctly, that genes in fact occupy specific physical locations on chromosomes. |
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