Drosophila melanogaster: How and Why It Became a Model Organism

Abstract

Drosophila melanogaster is one of the most known and used organisms worldwide, not just to study general biology problems but above all for modeling complex human diseases. During the decades, it has become a central tool to understand the genetics of human disease, how mutations alter the behavior and health of cells, tissues, and organs, and more recently to test new compounds with a potential therapeutic use. But how did this small insect become so crucial in genetics? And how is it currently used in the study of human conditions affecting millions of people? In this review, we retrace the historical origins of its adoption in genetics laboratories and list all the advantages it provides to scientific research, both for its daily usage and for the fine tuning of gene regulation through genetic engineering approaches. We also provide some examples of how it is used to study human diseases such as cancer, neurological and infectious diseases, and its importance in drug discovery and testing.

Keywords: Drosophila; human diseases; model organism.

Figure 1

Two of the main discoveries by Morgan and his group. (A) Inheritance of the white gene, mapping on the X chromosome. (B) Linkage maps of Drosophila melanogaster visible variations; chromosome “I” is the X chromosome. Both pictures come from the original Morgan’s book published in 1926 [5]. (Copyright note: images can be freely used because all copyrightable works published in the United States before 1930 are now in the public domain due to copyright expiration [6].)

Figure 2

The advantages of studying Drosophila melanogaster.

Figure 3

Main disease categories for which Drosophila is a valuable model, and the relative model strength. Data are listed top-down by (i) strength and (ii) alphabetical order.