Advantages of selecting drosophila as an experimental organisms in genetics

• Drosophila melanogaster is a small, easily reared insect with a short lifecycle.

• The key advantages of Drosophila are a balance between genetic power and biomedical relevance, and rapidity and low cost of generation and maintenance of mutant and transgenic stocks.

• The genetic toolbox available for Drosophila allows precise intervention in specific, defined cells in an otherwise normal organism, opening unique opportunities for functional biology.

• Approximately 70% of human genes have clear Drosophilahomologues, allowing the modelling of many human diseases in flies.

• Drosophila also shares approximately 70% of its genes with Anopheles gambiae, the mosquito vector of malaria.

• Our understanding of fly development is now mature: new phenotypes are required to provide a global functional genomic understanding.

• An exciting challenge for the future is functional biology; understanding how the different tissues and control systems interact to make a working, successful organism.