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Since Mendel first starting cross-pollinating pea plants in the
1800s, certain plants and animals have been used to study basic
genetics and physiology. Because all living things on earth have common ancestors, their genomes and the mechanisms of growth and development have many similarities. This makes it possible to study one organism to learn information that can be applied to other organisms—including humans. Organisms that are used to learn about our common biology are called
model organisms
. Popular animal model organisms include the mouse and the fruit fly, while much has been learned about plants by studying corn.
The more closely related we are to a particular model organism,
the more scientists can directly apply research findings to humans.
But no model organism is perfect. While many treatments for human
diseases have been discovered first in mice, curing cancer in a
rodent doesn’t always lead to effective treatments for people.
With recent advances in
high-tech
automated technologies
, studies of the genetic causes of disease
can often be made directly with individual human genomes, although
model organisms will continue to be important for experimental biology.
To learn more about model organisms, visit
WWW
Resources for Model Organisms
(http://www.cbs.dtu.dk/~gorm/
modelorganisms.html).
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Living
Tools for Research
How
are different organisms used in research? Move your mouse over
the pictures and click to find out.
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Certain organisms
seem tailor-made for particular lines of research, with economics,
ease of handling, and a core knowledge base from the work
of others often playing a part in which plant or animal a
scientist will choose to study
.
Watch the movies below to
see two examples of how scientists design their experiments
and gather data.
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Zachary Mainen, a neuroscientist
at Cold Spring Harbor is investigating decision making and
brain function using
rats
, classic
model organisms for psychological studies of learning behavior.
(Watch QuickTime movie)
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(Watch RealMedia Movie)
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Zachary explains how decision
making in rats could eventually help us understand human conflicts.
(Hear
QuickTime clip)
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Tim Tully, a research biologist
at Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory, uses the
fruit
fly
Drosophila
melanogaster
to discover
genes involved in memory formation, in part because genetic
maps already existed for
Drosophila.
(Watch QuickTime movie)
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(Watch RealMedia Movie)
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Tim Tully comments on making
the leap from studying how flies learn to improving the human
condition.
(Hear QuickTime clip)
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