The Hakubi Project

   Organisms have various color patterns. Zebras and leopards are famous examples in mammals, and butterflies are famous in insects. There are many unexplained things about how these patterns are formed and how they function in nature. I have been conducting research using a polka-dotted fruit fly, Drosophila guttifera, which is a small fly with a color pattern on its wings that enables an integrative approach to questions ranging from pattern formation mechanisms to functions in nature. In my Hakubi project, I have aimed to understand the mechanism of color pattern formation of Drosophila guttifera and to reproduce the pattern in Drosophila melanogaster (a common fruit fly) with no pattern. I would like to talk about how far I was able to get toward reaching that goal, and my new research plan for the future.