Australian Drosophila Biomedical
Research Support Facility		  
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DROSOPHILA AS A MODEL ORGANISM
Why Drosophila? / History / Experiments / Community / Resources
   
Why use Drosophila?
  
  • Genome is fully sequenced and well annotated
  • Powerful genetic approaches
  • Extensive molecular studies
  • Comparative genomics with 12 Drosophila species
  • Great research community
  • Short life cycle
  • Cheap!
  • Balancer chromosomes
  • No recombination in males
  • Polytene chromosomes
     
History  

Drosophila has been used as a model genetic organism since the early 1900s.

Thomas Hunt Morgan started the first fly lab at Columbia University, discovering the white-eyed mutation in 1910. He won the Nobel Prize for Physiology or Medicine in 1933 for his work that demonstrated that genes are carried on chromosomes and are the mechanical basis of heredity.
As a result of his work Drosophila became a major model organism in contemporary genetics.

THMorgan
Thomas Hunt Morgan
     
Experiments/Stocks/Genetics/Transgenics  

So many stocks... so many experiments...so little time...

If you would like us to help you use Drosophila in your research please contact us.

 dpp-eyeless
Dpp-GAL4/UAS-eyeless
   
Drosophila community    
The Drosophila research community, especially in Australia, has a spirit of openess and co-operation that feeds collaboration, ideas and productivity.  
     
Drosophila resources  
See our Links page for just some of the amazing resources and centres dedicated to Drosophila research. Because of Drosophila's long history as a model organism there is a wealth of knowledge available -that can be exploited for your research.  
     
Drosophila is great!!!  
If you're not convinced that Drosophila is a great model system, ask us how we can help you to use Drosophila in your research and let us convince you - contact us.