Shadowing Opportunity

For a small school, I believe Loras College offers many unique research opportunities for undergrad students.  However, rarely does one get the opportunity to witness these projects on personal basis.  This afternoon I had the privilege of shadowing Cara Marie while she was working in Dr. Schnee’s lab.  The primary goal of Cara Marie’s research is to determine the effect of cadmium exposure on the mating patterns of fruit flies (Drosophila melanogaster).  I now have a profound level of respect for the research the students in Dr. Schnee’s lab are performing.  Still, I am thankful for the research I am conducting.

By the time I shadowed Cara Marie, I had already witnessed two of her presentations on her work, so I had a basic idea of how she was spending the J-term.  However, following her around really helped to answer some of my lingering questions about the project.  Cara Marie was already working diligently by the time I joined her during the afternoon, so I was thrown right into the mix. 

The most interesting part of the afternoon was observing the behavior of a male fly that was exposed to a .75 M concentration of cadmium when it was mixed with a female fly that did not have any cadmium exposure.  These flies were combined in a vile that contained neither food nor water.  Cara Marie said one can tell the identity of each fly apart from the other because male flies have a dark spot on the abdomen, but I was not easily able to perform this task.  We began timing the courting pattern as soon as the flies were together at the top of the vile.  The female fruit fly seemed uninterested and continually left the male’s company.  After around fifteen minutes of watching the flies they had been courting each other for nearly ten minutes.  At one point during the courtship, the male fly began to undertake an activity known as preening.  This is a cleaning procedure that the fly performs to prepare itself for mating.  Interestingly, Cara Marie commented that the male fly appeared to be noticing that the female was uninterested in him, and the male fly may have been trying to clean off any residual cadmium.  The observation was concluded after the thirty minute mark, and at this point the flies still had yet to mate.  Dr. Schnee commented that around twenty-five similar watches are required to make any type of conclusion about the mating behavior of the flies.

While we were observing the courtship between the two flies, Cara Marie broke down a typical day for her and some of the necessary preparations for her work.  I could not believe the amount of time she spends just making sure she had enough flies to work with.  Observing the flies was very tedious and not extremely exciting to me, but Cara Marie was completely engrossed in what was occurring before us.  Also, because she is working with a higher level of organism than the bacteria that I am used to, she is on the flies’ time to a certain extent.  It definitely requires a patient personality to perform animal observations, and Cara Marie fits this mold well.  One could sense the level of excitement she had once the flies began to display any type of ritual courtship mannerisms. Her enthusiasm was enjoyable to witness.

Even though I greatly enjoyed my shadowing opportunity, I am glad to be working in a cell biology lab.  I do not believe I have the required patience to observe the behavior of fruit flies for an entire day.  Still, I find the overall premise of the research to be interesting, and I look forward to viewing Cara Marie’s results at the end of J-term.