page_title: Drosophila melanogaster
section_title: Reasons for use in laboratories
hierarchical_section_title: Drosophila melanogaster / Model organism in genetics / Reasons for use in laboratories
caption_attribution_description: Eye colors (clockwise): brown, cinnabar, sepia, vermilion, white, wild. Also, the white-eyed fly has a yellow body, the sepia-eyed fly has a black body, and the brown-eyed fly has an ebony body.
context_page_description: Drosophila melanogaster is a species of fly in the family Drosophilidae. The species is known generally as the common fruit fly or vinegar fly. Starting with Charles W. Woodworth's proposal of the use of this species as a model organism, D. melanogaster continues to be widely used for biological research in genetics, physiology, microbial pathogenesis, and life history evolution. As of 2017, six Nobel prizes had been awarded for research using Drosophila.
  D. melanogaster is typically used in research owing to its rapid life cycle, relatively simple genetics with only four pairs of chromosomes, and large number of offspring per generation. It was originally an African species, with all non-African lineages having a common origin. Its geographic range includes all continents, including islands. D. melanogaster is a common pest in homes, restaurants, and other places where food is served.
  Flies belonging to the family Tephritidae are also called "fruit flies". This can cause confusion, especially in the Mediterranean, Australia, and South Africa, where the Mediterranean fruit fly Ceratitis capitata is an economic pest.
context_section_description: There are many reasons the fruit fly is a popular choice as a model organism:
  Its care and culture require little equipment, space, and expense even when using large cultures.
  It can be safely and readily anesthetized (usually with ether, carbon dioxide gas, by cooling, or with products such as FlyNap).
  Its morphology is easy to identify once anesthetized.
  It has a short generation time (about 10 days at room temperature), so several generations can be studied within a few weeks.
  It has a high fecundity (females lay up to 100 eggs per day, and perhaps 2000 in a lifetime).
  Males and females are readily distinguished, and virgin females are easily isolated, facilitating genetic crossing.
  The mature larva has giant chromosomes in the salivary glands called polytene chromosomes, "puffs", which indicate regions of transcription, hence gene activity. The under-replication of rDNA occurs resulting in only 20% of DNA compared to the brain. Compare to the 47%, less rDNA in Sarcophaga barbata ovaries.
  It has only four pairs of chromosomes – three autosomes, and one pair of sex chromosomes.
  Males do not show meiotic recombination, facilitating genetic studies.
  Recessive lethal "balancer chromosomes" carrying visible genetic markers can be used to keep stocks of lethal alleles in a heterozygous state without recombination due to multiple inversions in the balancer.
  The development of this organism—from fertilized egg to mature adult—is well understood.
  Genetic transformation techniques have been available since 1987.
  Its complete genome was sequenced and first published in 2000.
  Sexual mosaics can be readily produced, providing an additional tool for studying the development and behavior of these flies.
caption: D. melanogaster multiple mutants (clockwise from top): brown eyes and black cuticle (2 mutations), cinnabar eyes and wildtype cuticle (1 mutation), sepia eyes and ebony cuticle, vermilion eyes and yellow cuticle, white eyes and yellow cuticle, wildtype eyes and yellow cuticle.
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