Drosophila melanogaster (Fruit Fly)Thomas Hunt Morgan, famous for discovering the role of the chromosome in heredity was the first to successfully breed and mutate fruit flies for genetic research. Ever since fruit flies have won the spotlight for a large amount of research including developmental, neurodegenerative and various genetic pathways such as circadian rhythms. They serve easy to maintain and screen, have a quick breeding life and only have four chromosomes making them extremely easy to study.
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Mus musculus (Mouse)The mouse has a long history of being a great mammalian model creating successful translational research for certain human diseases. The genome is highly understood and transgenic lines are widely available; however, they are expensive and have a longer lifespan and gestational period than most other model organisms. They also serve as a great model for human development.
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Danio rerio (Zebrafish)The zebrafish is a great vertebrate model with easily visible embryos making embryological manipulations possible. They are good for morphology and developmental research. Zebrafish are extremely easy to breed and have a simple genome, yet possess similar structures and systems to that of humans. Recently, becoming very popular in neuronal research due to creation of easy screens for deficits.
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Caenorhabditis elegan (Roundworm)Nematodes are uniques models of study due to their hermaphroditic qualities and simplicity. Each adult only has 959 somatic cells and the cell lineage has been completely constructed. They can be easily maintained within petri dishes and have a fast generation period. Their morphology has been completely characterized and they share many properties with humans; however they are less similar to humans than many other model organisms.
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Saccharomyces cerevisiae (Yeast)The yeast possess excellent genetics in which molecular techniques to easily clone genes have been developed. They have all the basic eukaryotic cell organelles and similar cell cycle control units as animals. Yeast are extremely easy to maintain and are simple organisms.
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