Some fruit flies have been trapped from the vicinity by keeping some transparent plastic bottles with a bait (tomato) keeping inside the bottles to attract native fruit flies…
Prepared a TRSV medium to make single line cultures of these native (Bageshwar) fruit flies.
I shall be updating this thread!!!..
1.When we look at the first part i.e. components or the ingredients used for making the homemade media…
While comparing with the Standard Corn Meal Media
Dextrose and sucrose are a source of sugars,
Maize powder a source of carbohydrates,
Yeast extract a source of proteins, vitamins and minerals and
Agar as a solidifying agent.
Now when we look to the ingredients in our Tomato Rava Homemade Media,
Table sugar is a source of sugar as in cornmeal media
Rava is a source of carbohydrates (73g in 100g rava)
Tomato puree is a source of proteins, vitamins and minerals
Rava here in this media acts as a solidifying or a binding agent as well.
So when we look at the components or the ingredients used…they are just perfect when compared with each other!
Imamuddin Azmi
FY Bsc BT , KJ SOMAIYA CLG
Drosophila group.
Plan of work today :
Media preparation :
We are making 250 ml of corn meal Agar media,to make the media ,we need the following consituents:
Maize Powder.- 20.75g
Dextrose. -.12.5. g
Sucrose. - 6.25. g
Yeast. - 3.25. g
5)AgarAgar powder - 4.5g
6)Distilled water. - 250ml
Then we have to Autoclave. And after cooling we had to add the following acids.
Orthophosphoric Acid.- 0.17 ml
Propionic Acid. - 1ml
The components used in corn meal agar medium are:
Dextrose
Sucrose
Maize powder
Yeast extract powder
Agar agar powder
Distilled water
Acids added
Orthophosphoric acid
Propionic acid
What could be the reason for using such a media?? 
When we explain this to a common man…how do we tell them that we use such components!!! Everyone wont understand what these components are!!! Also they would think “for culturing such flies…why so many components”
So in simple terms…
Like how human beings require carbohydrates, sugars, proteins, vitamins & minerals in their daily diet…in the same way these flies need them too if we want to culture them!!
So Maize flour is a source of carbohydrates, etc… dextrose is a simple sugar and a source of glucose (energy) for the larvae as its a simple sugar, sucrose a disaccharide for the flies, yeast extract a source of proteins and other nutrients present in it…
Agar is a solidifying agent as we cant culture or keep the flies in a liquid medium…
Why distilled water…for avoiding other ions or any minerals or anything in the water that could cause harm for the flies…seeing to it that we maintain a neutral pH as well…
Acids…orthophosphoric acid has antibacterial property while propionic acid has antifungal property!!!
Media bottles for culturing flies…
