In Drosophila melanogaster (fruit flies), how significantly different is the vermilion eye color to the wildtype eye color? I was reading that vermilion has a brighter red pigment than the wildtype flies, but was wondering if vermilion and the wildtype red eye look significantly noticeable. In other words, how much brighter? and are the eye colors different to tell apart as the flies age?
Let's say the difference is so "intense" as between purple and dark red. But the difference highly decreases with age. So, to be sure, I suggest to compare the eyes of newly hatched, virgin animals. If you want to be 100% sure, I suggest to use cho (chocolate) mutant background. Here the vermilion cho double mutant eyes are more like orange compared to wildtype cho animals, which show dark, brownish red eye. We use vermilion cho mutants to make transgenic animals if our transgene bears vermilion+ marker.
It is distinguishable. Vermillion is like fluorescent orange! Wildtype is darker, brick red. Also, not sure about the 'pseudo pupil' but that may also be different. Present in WT, lacking in vermillion. Agree that the best time to sort is in young adults.
They are different like mentioned above, just remember that you cannot see vermillion unless it's on the background of a vermillion mutant
Amanda, vermillion homozygotes/hemizygotes have eyes that are a much brighter red (more orange-ish to me) than WT. Basically, if you compare them, particularly just after eclosion, with similarly just-eclosed WT flies, you will have no trouble distinguishing them. I don't know if you're familiar with cinnabar or scarlet homozygotes, but the vermillion eye colour is very similar to those.
There is a pseudopupil, but it's fainter than in WT, but becomes darker with age (another reason to look at just-eclosed flies if you're new to this mutation). Also if you combine vermillion with brown, you should get white eyes.
Thank you for the in-depth response, Shaad! Unfortunately, I have not seen the cinnabar or scarlet phenotypes yet, but from all the answers that I have gathered from this post, I think I have a better understanding about how vermilion eyes look. I will look at recently emerged flies and also check the pseudopupil as well. Thank you so much everyone for your help! I appreciate it!
- Badges
- Science topic
- Similar topics
- Biological Science
- Biochemistry
- Enzymology
- Enzymes