Lecture 4: Model organisms

common ancestry -conservation of major aspects of biology

rapid development with short life cycles small adult size availability and inexpensive maintenance and breeding tractability to experimental methodology relevance to humans

laid the foundations of molecular biology antibiotics recombinant DNA technologies

eukaryotic system signaling molecules and cell cycle are nearly similar to understand human diseases (nearly 20% human diseases genes have yeast homologues) ease of genetic manipulation -> use for analyzing and functionally dissecting gene products from other eukaryotes

phylogeny (at the base of metazoan phyla) evolutionary transition (body axis, germ layers, gonads, cell types) pattern formation (peculiar tissue dynamics make hydra perpetual embryo) regeneration, stem cells

live in water most have tentacles catch food with stinging cells gut for digesting nerve net found througout the body

can be grown and genetically manipulated with the speed and ease of microrganism + features of a real animal genom is fully sequenced full set of organ systems complex sensory systems coordinated behavior possible to trace the lineage of every one of its nearly 1000 constituent cells

developmental and cell biology neurobiology aging human disease studies (~75% genes have potential homologs)

biomedical research easy to manipulate -> study developmeny, physiology, behavior insights into forms of cancer, neurodegenerative diseases, behavior, immunity, aging, multigenic inheritance, development homologues of it ~ many organ systems in mammals

transparent egg (48 hours to develop) -> see the embryonic development shared features - blood, kidney, optical systems development in ex vivo genome - half the size of mouse and human -> identification of key vertebrate genes

study development of higher vertebrates - growth accompanies morphogenesis

relatively small genome -> easy to grow in lab agriculture, energy, environment, human health