The fruit fly Drosophila melanogaster has been widely used in undergraduate biology labs, as its short generation
time and the large number of available mutants make it a versatile yet inexpensive model organism to work with.
There are several established Drosophila strains that are either allelic variants or loss of function mutants for
alcohol dehydrogenase (ADH), the enzyme that catalyzes the first step of ethanol metabolism. The ability to
tolerate relatively high levels of ethanol is linked to the flies? feeding and life cycle in the wild, and the relationship
between ethanol sensitivity and ADH activity has been studied extensively. Here we describe a set of student
experiments that allow direct comparison of ethanol sensitivity and ADH catalytic activity in fly strains with
different ADH phenotypes. The Ethanol Mobility Behavior Assay (EMBA) student lab was described by Echeverria
and Silver Key (2022) for measuring ethanol sensitivity. We build on this to allow students to use the same flies
used in the EMBA to measure the amount of ADA catalytic activity present. In this 2 to 3-day project, students
are introduced to working with Drosophila in the laboratory, learning how to manipulate this widely-used model
organism by anesthetizing the flies and separating them by sex. The data acquired in the EMBA requires statistical
analysis to determine differences between fly strains; the depth of this analysis can be tailored to the group of
students and course learning goals. They also learn the conceptual background and practical, hands-on aspects
of conducting catalytic activity assays that can be applied to any dehydrogenase class enzyme. The specific
implementation of the experiments in this project is flexible, allowing the instructor to adjust the level of student
inquiry and timing of the experiments to suit the needs of their course.
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