Sample Bio Lab Report - Hamilton College
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off properly before the test.
Flies taste food with specific cells on their tarsal hairs. Each hair has, in addition to
a mechanoreceptor, five distinct cells – alcohol, oil, water, salt, and sugar – that determine
its acceptance or rejection of the food (Dethier, 1975). The membranes located on the tarsi
are the actual functional receptors since it is their depolarization that propagates the
stimulus to the fly (Dethier, 1975). Of the five cells, stimulation of the water and sugar
cells induce feeding, while stimulation of the salt, alcohol, and oil receptors inhibit
feeding. More specifically, a fly will reject food if the substrate fails to stimulate the sugar
or water receptors, stimulates a salt receptor, or causes a different message from normal
(e.g., salt and sugar receptors stimulated concurrently) (Dethier 1963).
Flies accept sugars and reject salts as well as unpalatable compounds like alkaloids
(Dethier & Bowdan, 1989). This selectivity is a valuable asset to a fly because it helps the
fly recognize potentially toxic substances as well as valuable nutrients (H. Cramer,
personal communication). Substances such as alcohols and salts could dehydrate the fly
and have other harmful effects on its homeostasis (Dethier, 1976). Thus, flies are well
adapted to finding food for their own survival.
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
I thank Prof. Cramer for help with the t-test and my lab partners for helping me conduct
and understand this experiment.
LITERATURE CITED
Campbell, N.A., & J.B. Reece. 2008. Biology, 8
th
ed. Pearson Benjamin Cummings, San
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