Week 1 & 2 update

Week 1
After a lab’s tour, I learned the basis about Drosophila Melanogaster such as the distinction between females, males and virgins and how the fly genetics work.
Another aspect that I took care of is getting acquainted with installing the fly treadmill, which will be my main tool to analyse the flies’ behaviour. This task gathered manipulating a plethora of softwares, but first and foremost, learning how to stick a fly and install it properly. It requires to euthanise momentarily the fly and some patience before getting the hang of it.
However, what occupied most of my time this week was reading scientific papers that were already published on the subject that my research is focusing on, such as how synapses arborize, the Comm2 protein and the mechanisms happening in the neuromuscular junction.
I look forward to learn more about the theoretical and biological aspect of my project, and which crosses I will have to set up for the experiments.
Week 2
The beginning of this week was marked by advanced genetics courses given by my supervisor. I was therefore able to understand all the biological mechanisms that are underneath the flies’ locomotion and how the motor neurons interact with muscle fibres to initiate a movement.
I also got to know which type of fly I was going to handle for my experiments, namely a control group (w1118) and Comm2 E-4 homozygous males.
That is why I began to set up my crosses for the experiment. I need to raise three main stocks : the control group, the Comm2 loss-of-function mutants and a rebalancing cross. The rebalancing cross will be used to confirm that the phenotype of over-branching characteristic of the Comm2’s loss (according to previous unpublished experiments carried out Prof. McCabe’s lab) is still observed and that the mutants used on the treadmill are in line with the aim that the experiment is designed to achieve.
Alongside the crosses, I followed an introductory course in Python, with the aim of being able to perform data analysis once all the data has been collected.
I am eager to begin the technical aspect of this project next week, even though I will have to wait a little longer before the mutants and control flies can walk on the treadmill, as they have to be 10 days old and then 20 days old to follow the experiment’s conditions.
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Love reading your lab advanture Alixe!