Drosophila Melanogaster: A Model Organism
For
many years, Drosophila melanogaster
(fruit fly) has been used in biological research to analyze a wide range of
phenomena. A century ago, in biology Drosophila
melanogaster was presented as a decisive model. Many scientists used it in
their research due to various advantages such as inexpensive, easy to grow,
powerful genetic tools and grow in a small area. Drosophila melanogaster shares a biochemical, physiological,
neurological, and biological resemblance with mammals. In fruit flies, the
genetic manipulations are much easier for the reason that they have a small
size genome.
INTRODUCTION
Genetic Name:
Drosophila melanogaster
Common Name:
Fruit Fly
The
Drosophila melanogaster (fruit fly),
belonging to the Drosophilidae family. The fruit fly is a dipteran insect. This fly
has been used as a model organism in biology about one hundred years ago. The
life span of a fruit fly is between 40-120 days. In Drosophila melanogaster approximately 60% disease genes of human
are present. Ten researchers have received 6 Nobel prizes in “Physiology or
Medicine” on their innovative findings on Drosophila
melanogaster.
HISTORY
Charles
W. is accepted as a first-person that has widely used this fly as a model
organism. Thomas Hunt Morgan is
an American embryologist is known as the father of Drosophila study. In 1908 he
started working with D. melanogaster. The
genome of D. melanogaster was completely sequenced in 2000. Drosophila melanogaster continues to be extensively
used for biomedical research in physiology, genetics, life history development
and microbial pathogenesis (Abolaji A.O. et al., 2013).
WHY DROSOPHILA AS A MODEL ORGANISM?
- Cost-Effective:
Study in fruit flies is cost-effective, reasonable for scientists. D. melanogaster is cheap and easy to breed in great amount, and can be kept on laboratory trays. Fruit flies are easily maintained and handled in great numbers. If compared to larger animals, the flies grow at a very low price and require very little space (Tolwinski, N., 2017).
- Short Life Span:
A female fly can lay approximately a hundred eggs per day for until 20 days. An embryo takes almost 10 days to develop into an adult fly. Therefore it is comparatively easy to breed large amounts of flies or embryos for an experiment (Jennings, B. H., 2011).
- Genetically Identical Offspring:
In a large amount of genetically identical offspring is easily produced. So this feature makes experimentation very easier, the reason that there is the minute the difference among different individuals and obtained results are reproducible (Tolwinski, N., 2017).
- Shared History & Evolutionary Roots:
Many of human’s organs share important principles of their function and organization with fruit flies. Therefore, the biological process and genes underpinning disease and health in human beings are often alike to those that can be studied in fruit fly (Thomas C. Kaufman., 2017).
- Ideal for Genetic Analyses:
Drosophila melanogaster is an ideal organism for genetic analyses, because of its small size of genome detailed described in fig 1. This feature makes it uncomplicated to control mutations of the gene, lone or even in mixtures (Thomas C. Kaufman., 2017).
Figure 1. In D.melanogaster 4 chromosome pairs are present (Thomas C. K., 2017)
FRUIT FLIES IN STUDY OF HUMAN DISEASE:
D.melanogaster used in various human diseases to investigation because 60-70% of human disease genes are present in fruit fly genome. Numerous articles or research papers have been published that illustrate the use of D.melanogaster in the study of human disease (Abolaji A.O. et al., 2013).
- Drosophila melanogaster in Neurodegenerative Diseases
- Drosophila melanogaster in Metabolic Illness
- Drosophila melanogaster in Infectious and Inflammation Diseases
- Drosophila melanogaster in Cancer study
- Drosophila
melanogaster in Neurodegenerative Diseases:
Human neurodegenerative diseases mostly affect the elderly and it is a very destructive disease. The neurodegenerative diseases like Alzheimer disease are related to the pathogenic oligomers because of abnormal protein, eventually, neurons are loss gradually in the brain. Due to human genetics limitations, toxicologists use D. melanogaster as a model organism to study the genes that are affected (Abolaji A.O. et al., 2013).
- Drosophila melanogaster in Metabolic and diabetic Illness:
Fruit flies have been used to study human metabolism in certain aspects. D.melanogaster has insulin-like-peptide producing cells and glucagon analogue cells, both aspects make their resemblance to vertebrates. D.melanogaster also used in the study of metabolic process that associated with diabetes type II, though, in this field fruit fly use is limited because of lack of pancreas and liver (Abolaji A.O. et al., 2013).
- Drosophila
melanogaster in Inflammation Diseases:
D.melanogaster is continuously exposed to the harmful pathogens that are present in the atmosphere. D.melanogaster has developed an advanced immune response that is very useful to understand the inflammatory and infectious conditions of human beings (Abolaji A.O. et al., 2013).
- Drosophila
melanogaster in Study of Cancer:
D.
melanogaster use in cancer study has eased numerous discoveries for example the
signalling pathway, tumour suppressor collaboration, apoptosis-induced
compensatory propagation, and oncogenes mechanism (Abolaji A.O. et al., 2013).
FLYBASE DATABASE FOR THE STUDY OF D. MELANOGASTER:
Numerous
online resources are accessible to study the Drosophila melanogaster. Flybase
database is for drosophila molecular biology and genetics. Information about
knockdown lines, distorted alleles, and whole-genome sequences in Drosophila
melanogaster can be found in FlyBase database. The home page of flybase database
is shown in figure 2.
By: Sadia Israr
REFERENCES
- Tolwinski, N. (2017). Introduction: Drosophila—A Model System for Developmental Biology. Journal of Developmental Biology, 5(3), 9. doi:10.3390/jdb5030009.
- Jennings, B. H. (2011). Drosophila – a versatile model in biology & medicine. Materials Today, 14(5), 190–195. doi:10.1016/s1369-7021(11)70113-4.
- Thomas C. Kaufman. (2017). A Short History and Description of Drosophila melanogaster Classical Genetics: Chromosome Aberrations, Forward Genetic Screens, and the Nature of Mutations. GENETICS. vol. 206 no. 2 665-689; https://doi.org/10.1534/genetics.117.199950
- Reiter, L. T. (2001). A Systematic Analysis of Human Disease-associated Gene Sequences in Drosophila melanogaster. Genome Research, 11(6), 1114–1125. doi:10.1101/gr.169101
- Abolaji A.O, Kamdem J.P, Farombi E.O and Rocha J.B.T. (2013). Drosophila melanogaster as a Promising Model Organism in Toxicological Studies. Arch. Bas. App. Med. 1. 33 – 38.
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