Visualization of the ratios that predict the Laws can differ in plants and animals since their life-cycles differ. Animals undergo meiosis to immediately produce haploid gametes, which undergo fertilization to produce a diploid embryo that eventually develops into an adult. Plant life-cycles undergo an alternation of generations . Meiosis yields spores, which develop into gametophytes and the gametophytes then produce haploid gametes. These gametes undergo fertilization to produce an embryo that develops into a diploid sporophyte .
Sporophytes make spores and the cycle continues.
Fruitflies have been used in genetic studies for nearly 100 years. Because of their short life-cycle and ease of rearing they have become a model genetic system, now with many genetic markers identified to aid researchers. C-ferns are homosporous and are found in all over the world in tropical and subtropical areas. All stages of their life-cycle can be clearly observed in culture, making them an excellent system to study the basics of plant genetics and biology. The purpose of this laboratory exercise is to allow you to examine Mendel's Laws of Inheritance in fruitflies, Drosophila melanogaster, and in C-ferns, Ceratopteris richardii .