PZ Myers. 2004 Dec 23. The fruit flies send Christmas greetings!. <http://pharyngula.org/index/weblog/the_fruit_flies_send_christmas_greetings/>. Accessed 2008 Dec 01.

Posted on M00o93H7pQ09L8X1t49cHY01Z5j4TT91fGfr on Thursday, December 23, 2004

The fruit flies send Christmas greetings!

One duty that consumed several hours of my time this afternoon was taking care of frogs, fish, and flies before I take off for a week. In particular, I had to set up a whole bunch of fly stocks that I'll be using this spring in my genetics course. This particular bottle was unintentionally appropriate for the season:

image

Get it? ho/ho? Like Santa, only it's a bottle of flies carrying the ho allele? I know, lame fly genetics humor…

That's a bottle of fly medium containing some mutant flies. They are called heldout, or ho for short, also known as dppd-ho. This is an allele of the decapentaplegic gene, an important molecule in the signalling pathway that defines dorso-ventral polarity in Drosophila.

As a curious coincidence, I noticed that the heldout mutation was discovered by Edward Novitski—I knew Ed Novitski. I was his TA back at Oregon way back when.

Posted by PZ Myers on 12/23 at 06:38 PM
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  1. That is, in fact, the best Xmas-related fly genetics joke I have heard alll day.
    #: Posted by Chris Clarke  on  12/23  at  06:56 PM
  2. Dorso-ventral polarity? I just assumed you were attempting to isolate the Paris Hilton genotype. ZING!

    Geddit? Ho allele. Hehe... *cough*
    #: Posted by Ben  on  12/23  at  06:56 PM
  3. Why is the media blue? I've only used the classic tan-colored kind ...
    #: Posted by Radagast  on  12/24  at  12:25 AM
  4. I was wondering about the blue too. Ah well, it's heartwarming to see that the kids were tucked in and I'm sure there's visions of sugarplums dancing in their heads, such as they are.
    #: Posted by Wayne  on  12/24  at  07:09 AM
  5. Gimme a break. Come on, Ho alleles? Not even Leno would touch that material.

    I don't get no respect...
    #: Posted by Ben  on  12/25  at  07:39 AM
  6. PZ, this cranky agnostic sends Seasons Greetings and Best Wishes for the New Year to you, and yours, and the fruit flies and other beasties of your lab!
    #: Posted by  on  12/25  at  10:56 AM
  7. ...and a heathen Merry Christmas to you all from the inland Northwest.
    #: Posted by  on  12/25  at  11:27 AM
  8. He's using an instant medium. It comes in white flakes and you just add water. Some of these instant media turn blue and some remain white after the water is added. There are other ways to make fly media from scratch using molasses (a sugar source), yeast (to ferment the sugar), and agar (for firmness), among other ingredients, that tends to perform better than the instant (just add water) stuff, but is more tedius to make.

    I was curious about the label: did you buy them, have them made, or make them yourself?
    #: Posted by RPM  on  12/25  at  11:59 AM
  9. I can hardly believe he'd use an instant medium at Christmassy time. What would the colleagues think?
    #: Posted by Wayne  on  12/25  at  01:02 PM
  10. Ho allele?

    That's almost as bad as a mouse who is heterozygous for both speck and microphthalmia

    Yep, they have the fk/mi genotype! Ha!

    Sorry.

    Merry Santa Day to everyone!

    smile
    #: Posted by  on  12/25  at  01:34 PM
  11. Ben, what's with the eerie Yanni gravatar. Gives me the willies. This fly mix is cool science stuff. Thanks, PZ.
    #: Posted by  on  12/29  at  04:49 PM
  12. Yanni? That's a self-portrait.

    Hmm, I guess there is a bit of a resemblance...
    #: Posted by Ben  on  12/29  at  04:56 PM