Two Questions On Drosophila.

[A.J. DAVIS]

In article <36fbt4$1mb at tuba.cit.cornell.edu> ro11 at crux4.cit.cornell.edu (Rohan Oberoi) writes:
>From: ro11 at crux4.cit.cornell.edu (Rohan Oberoi)
>Subject: Two Questions On Drosophila.
>Date: 29 Sep 1994 21:34:28 GMT

>Would be very grateful if anyone who knows would tell me what the
>average life span of Drosophila, or of the primary strain thereof,
>

Life span:

Depends on the species - i suspect you mean D melanogaster (wild type).  
Inseminated females will survive for months with a daily mortality probability 
of around 5% or so.   (We've had ffemales live >>> 6 months).
Similar long lives have been recorded for other species with larger bodied 
species generally living longer that smaller bodied species.

All of this is beside the point however since in the wild the mortality 
probability is around 70% a *day* and few individuals live more than 3 days.  
This means that genes expressed in flies older than a week or so are in effect 
selectively neutral.


Genetic similarity:

Does anybody really know ?  I doubt it but 85-90% is likely to be in the right 
ballpark.



Andrew