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Drosophila melanogaster (Black-bellied Dew-lover) a dipteran (two-winged) insect, is the species of fruit fly that is commonly used in genetic experiments. The life cycle of Drosophila melanogaster at 25 °C takes only 2 weeks. Females lay eggs (embryos) that eclose after 24 h. During oogenesis, cytoplasmic bridges connect the forming oocyte to nurse cells. Nutrients and developmental control molecules move from the nurse cells into the oocyte. In Figure 1, the forming oocyte can be seen to be covered by follicular support cells. The resulting larvae grow for 5 d while molting twice, at about 24 and 48 h after eclosion, before encapsulating in the puparium and undergoing a five-day-long metamorphosis.

Figure 1 Drosophila melanogaster oogenesis

Females first mate about 8 hours after emergence. The females store sperm from previous males they mated with for later use. For this reason geneticists must collect the female fly before her first mating, that is, a virgin female, and ensure that she mates only with the particular male needed for the experiment.

Drosophila melanogaster was chosen as a genetic animal model at the beginning of the twentieth century by Nobel Prize winner Thomas Hunt MorganThomas Hunt Morgan ( September 25, 1866 December 4, 1945) worked in natural history, zoology, and macromutation in Drosophila. Because of his work, Drosophila became one of the major animal models in genetics. His most important contributions to science w. Since then it has been a very successful animal model for biological research, for several reasons:

• It is small and easy to grow in the laboratory.
• It has only 4 chromosomes.
• Males do not show recombination, facilitating genetic studies.
• Genetic transformation techniques have been available since 1987.
• Its compact genomeGenome is also a popular science book by Matt Ridley. In biology, the genome of an organism is a complete DNA sequence of one set of chromosomes; for example, one of the two sets that a diploid individual carries in every somatic cell. When people say tha was sequencedFor the sense of "sequencing" used in electronic music, see the music sequencer article. In genetics and biochemistry, sequencing means to determine the primary structure (or primary sequence) of an unbranched biopolymer. Sequencing results in a symbolic in 1998.

In the molecular biologyMolecular biology is the study of biology at a molecular level. The field overlaps with other areas of biology, particularly genetics and biochemistry. Molecular biology chiefly concerns itself with understanding the interactions between the various syste community, Drosophila geneticists are known for their relatively whimsical naming of discovered gene mutations. Compared to the stodgy (but perhaps more practical) "cdc4", "cdk4", etc. names in the yeastSaccharomyces cerevisiae is a species of budding yeast. It is perhaps the most relevant yeast for mankind, both for its use since ancient times in baking and brewing, and for being one of the most intensively studied eukaryotic model organisms in molecula genome, Drosophila sports such favorites as "cheap date" (a mutation leading to increased sensitivity to ethanol intoxication) and "snafu" (a mutation leading to grotesque anatomical abnormalities).