Effects of Alcohol on Drosophila
Behavior
Your Name
Bio3622
Instructor: Dr. Gary Bulla
Section 1
11/14/05
Notes: Title should be descriptive but concise,
containing some key words
Title page should include only
the information shown here
Use no smaller than 12 pt font
for entire lab report
Capitalize words in title (except
of, the, in,
..)
ABSTRACT (Capitalized with bold face, underline or all caps)
A simple, stand alone, summary of
the important points of the paper.
Usually a 1-2 paragraphs. The reader should be able to understand the problem,
the hypotheses, the key experiments done, the results and the major conclusions
by reading only the abstract. Should be about 10% of your entire lab report.
EXAMPLE
Drosophila (fruit fly) is a
well-studied organism which has been used as model to understand higher-order
organisms both at the behavior and molecular levels. Because this organism
reproduces rapidly a number of mutants phenotypes exit, Drosophila has proven to be very useful tool. Because high alcohol levels
has been shown to have an effect of development of the human fetus, we asked
whether similar effects are observed and to what extent in the Drosophila. In
order to test this hypothesis, Drosophila were treated
with varying levels of alcohol at various times during embryogenesis. Our
results demonstrate that as little as 10% alcohol treatment
has profound effects on Drosophila development. In addition, embryogenesis was
delayed and abnormal wing development was observed. These results suggest that
alcohol affects many aspects of Drosophila embryogenesis.
INTRODUCTION
Write a 2-4 paragraph introduction to the subject
matter to give the casual reader a sense of what is being studied, and what
questions the experiments are addressing.
Your mom should be able to read this and make some sense out of it. It
should provide enough background information that it convinces the reader that
the experiments to be described later in the lab report are worthwhile. When
you make a claim, cite the source (for this class, it may the Gilbert
textbook). The last sentence or two should state your hypothesis, then describe the experiment actually done. Lastly, state
the predicted or actual outcome of your experiment.
MATERIAL and
METHODS
Provide a detailed account of the materials used and
the methods carried out. It should include enough detail so that a classmate
could repeat the experiment just by reading your description. Include controls
used, number of tests subjects done, and all parameters that were controlled
for (e.g. temperature, pH, light). Always use past tense. Avoid outline
form or numbered items. This section
will likely be 1-2 pages in length.
RESULTS
This section summarizes your data and should also be a
narrative. Your first sentence should describe the question being asked. The
second sentence should give the rationale for the first experiment. Make sure
to include enough experimental detail such that the reader knows what you are
about to describe.
EXAMPLE
The previously published
results demonstrating a high rate of deformations in newborns of alcoholic
mothers led us to ask questions about alcohol effects on development of a model
organism, Drosophila. First, we tested the
effect of increasing alcohol concentrations on pupal
development in Drosophila. Drosophila were exposed for
1-4 hours to increasing levels of ethanol and measurements made of when pupa
formation was detected. Results (Figure 1) show that
.
Present data in an organized, readable form. If data
cannot be explained in a few words (and most cannot), then use a table or a
graph. Hand-drawn graphs and table are not
acceptable. These should be produced on a computer. Tables and figures
(graphs, drawings) should be labeled consecutively (e.g. Table 1, Table 2, Figure 1). All figures and tables should have a descriptive
title and a legend to allow the reader to make sense to the table/figure
without reading the rest of the results.
Each time a result is described,
reference should be made to the figure.
EXAMPLE
The treatment of Drosophila with 20 % ethanol
resulted a 30% increase in heart rate (Table 2) However, although the heart
rate increased, it quickly returned to normal 10-15 minutes after removal of
the alcohol (Figure 2).
Do not explain why the results turned out the way they
did, only describe the results.
DISCUSSION
This section tells the reader what you think the
results mean. Use a few sentences to restate your experiment and your
hypothesis. Then mention the results and describe what you think they mean.
Dont repeat the details, just the major findings.
EXAMPLE
Alcohol exposure in humans has
been demonstrated to result in multiple errors in development. The experiments
described here examined the effect of alcohol of development of a drosophila
Although we predicted that
.., our results showed
that
.. Surprisingly, although the
..the effects were minimal. The effect
suggests that
..
Describe what may have gone wrong, variables that
could have affected your results, and interpretation of results. List how the
experiment might be done for more reliable results. What would you change?
Could these results be applied to other creatures? State any conclusions.
Total length should be 1-2 pages in length.
LITERATURE
CITED
List references, usually in the order they are cited
in the text.
EXAMPLES
Spath, G. F., and M.
C. Weiss.
1997. Hepatocyte nuclear factor 4 expression overcomes repression of the
hepatic phenotype in dedifferentiated hepatoma cells Molecular and Cellular
Biology. 17:1913-1922.
Johnson,
C.F. 2003. A visual
display of Drosophila. http://www.drophila.com/visual
Campbell,
N, L. and J. B. Reece. 2003. Biology, 6th ed. Pp 203-204, Benjamin Cummings, San Francisco, CA,:
Bulla, G.A. 2004. Biology professor,
TABLES
Should be computer-generated and
easy to understand. Normally, each table should be placed on a
separate page. However, it is acceptable to embed tables in the results
narrative. Each table should be numbered consecutively in the order they are
mentioned in the text. The table should
have a descriptive title with appropriate column labels as shown in the
following example:
EXAMPLE
FIGURES
Graphs are great to show patterns in an eye-catching
form. They should be consecutively in the order they are mentioned in the text.
Each graph should contain a descriptive title and labeled x and y axes
(including proper units). A legend
may be required to make a graph understandable. The x axis (horizontal line)
will always contain the independent variable and the y axis the dependent
variable. Standard error bars should be
included if the data represents averages three or more independent experiments.
EXAMPLE