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Kevin enjoys reading, playing computer games, skateboarding, drawing, debating, writing satire, making movies with clay figures and flying remote-control airplanes. Someday he would like to become a pediatric cardiologist so that he "may work with children with heart defects…and assure that they get the proper treatment needed to live long and healthy lives."
Mr. Holly, his science teacher, is Kevin's mentor. "He makes science challenging and fun and helps me apply scientific concepts in everyday life," says Kevin.
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Having worked with fruit flies on previous experiments, Kevin was curious about how the flies would respond to alcohol. Through his research, he knew that fruit flies feed on fermenting fruit, which releases alcohol. He also knew that fruit flies have evolved with a metabolic enzyme, alcohol dehydrogenase (ADH), which plays a large role in breaking down alcohol, making the flies tolerant of the toxic effects. Kevin was interested in testing the effect of alcohol on ADH+ and ADH- fruit flies to determine how ADH production is passed from one generation to the next. He hypothesized that ADH production would be a dominant trait.
Kevin selected six ADH+ males and six ADH- females as the parental (P1) group. The first filial generation (F1) was selected for testing, and other F1 hybrids were placed in a vial to mate for eight days, producing the second filial generation (F2). He then tested each generation of ADH+ and ADH- in vials of beer and water and observed the survival rates of the fruit flies. The F1 generation of flies tolerated alcohol better than their ADH- parents; however, 50 percent of them died within 36 hours. The F2 group also demonstrated a tolerance to alcohol. The genetic principle of codominance was demonstrated, as one trait did not dominate over another trait in the F1 generation.
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