06-15-2014, 07:43 PM
Fruit Fly – Drosophila melanogaster
Fruit fly is definitely one of the best studied model organisms. I even like to think of it as a model organism among model organisms. The reason for this lies in many advantages of studying fruit fly in comparison to other organisms.
First of all, it is very easy and cheap to have them. They are small, take up little space and they eat a little. They are usually placed in small vials where their food and water is and they have to be changed to another vial every two weeks or so. One of the best characteristics of fruit fly is their short life span (around 40-50 days; it is strongly affected by the temperature).
Moreover, once they are hatched, they spend about 4 days as larvae, four days in pupation stage, and then they are ready to mate 2 days after. This allows scientists to breed about 800 generations of fruit flies over the course of 30 years (the same number of mice generations would take more than 200 years).
Another reason why fruit flies are good for examinations and experiments is their type of chromosomes. They have polytene chromosomes which allow the precise mapping of genes due to the patterns of light and dark bands resembling a barcode.
One of the things studied the most in Drosophila is the development of the whole body plan, including the study of generation of different cell lineages and formation of different tissues/organs like nervous system, heart and musculature. Also, Drosophila has been extensively used to study cancer, cancer genes, control of cell proliferation, programmed cell death (apoptosis) and overall genetic control of behavior.
Cell polarity has been studied in Drosophila as well. It basically refers to the study of specialized cell functions based on the differences in the shape, structure and function of cells. All of the benefits of keeping fruit fly in the lab have also led scientists to use them in order to study the effects of drugs, alcohol and pesticides on living organisms.
Fruit fly is definitely one of the best studied model organisms. I even like to think of it as a model organism among model organisms. The reason for this lies in many advantages of studying fruit fly in comparison to other organisms.
First of all, it is very easy and cheap to have them. They are small, take up little space and they eat a little. They are usually placed in small vials where their food and water is and they have to be changed to another vial every two weeks or so. One of the best characteristics of fruit fly is their short life span (around 40-50 days; it is strongly affected by the temperature).
Moreover, once they are hatched, they spend about 4 days as larvae, four days in pupation stage, and then they are ready to mate 2 days after. This allows scientists to breed about 800 generations of fruit flies over the course of 30 years (the same number of mice generations would take more than 200 years).
Another reason why fruit flies are good for examinations and experiments is their type of chromosomes. They have polytene chromosomes which allow the precise mapping of genes due to the patterns of light and dark bands resembling a barcode.
One of the things studied the most in Drosophila is the development of the whole body plan, including the study of generation of different cell lineages and formation of different tissues/organs like nervous system, heart and musculature. Also, Drosophila has been extensively used to study cancer, cancer genes, control of cell proliferation, programmed cell death (apoptosis) and overall genetic control of behavior.
Cell polarity has been studied in Drosophila as well. It basically refers to the study of specialized cell functions based on the differences in the shape, structure and function of cells. All of the benefits of keeping fruit fly in the lab have also led scientists to use them in order to study the effects of drugs, alcohol and pesticides on living organisms.
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