A model organism is one that is amenable to a variety of studies. It often means that it has a well established genetics and that it is relatively easy to maintain in the laboratory. Back in the late 1960s and early 1970s, scientists who were part of the 'phage group began to look around for new model organisms—especially eukaryotes. I decided to move from bacteriophage T4 to an already existing model organism, Drosophila melanogaster. Some workers set up entirely new systems, such as Caenorhabditis elegans [Nobel Laureates: Sydney Brenner, Robert Horvitz, John Sulston].
The research scientists who I knew at the time were having fierce debates over the proper choice of a new model organism and some of them choose systems that did not pan out. The ones that caught on were species like mouse, human, Arabidopsis, Tetrahymena, Dictyostelium, zebrafish, and some stange little fungus called Saccharomyces cerevisiae.
Now there's a whole new group of model organisms on the market and Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory has decided to publish protocols for each one of them [Emerging Model Organisms].
Here's the complete list. Some of them are new to me.
* Nematode (Pristionchus pacificus)
* Opossum (Monodelphus domestica)
* Planarians
* Snapdragon (Antirrhinum)
* Spider (Cupennius salei)
* Amphipod (Parhyale hawaiensis)
* Bichirs (Polypterus)
* Blind Cave Fish (Astyanax mexicanus)
* Butterfly (Bicyclus anynana)
* Choanoflagellates
* Comb Jellies (Ctenophora)
* Cricket (Gryllus bimaculatus)
* Demosponge (Amphimedon queenslandica)
* Dogfish (Scyliorhinus canicula)
* Finches
* Fruit Bat (Carollia perspicillata)
* Lamprey (Petromyzon marinus)
* Leech (Helobdella)
* Moss (Physcomitrella patens)
* Quail (Coturnix coturnix japonica)
* Snail (Ilyanassa obsoleta)
* Social Ameba (Dictyostelium discoideum)
* Tomato (Solanum lycopersicum)
Note that this is only a list of the first volume. Papers just started coming in for the next set, so many more on the way! If any of your readers are not subscribers, two of the articles are featured this month and are freely accessible to all:
ReplyDeletePlanarians
and
Snapdragon
Where's the stickleback?
ReplyDeleteWhere's the sea urchin? That's been a fairly important model in developmental biology. Plus, cyclins!
ReplyDeleteQuail. Yup, if the funding and jobs return, I can go back to the lab and work on it again one day....
ReplyDeleteWe've got commissions out for both the stickleback and the urchin (we'll see if the authors we've asked are willing to write them up).
ReplyDeleteBut we are certainly open to submitted articles as well.
Why, oh why, isn't the title America's Next Top Model Organisms? A wasted opportunity if ever there was one.
ReplyDeleteI'm sure the Japanese Quail and Mexican Blind Cave Fish would have objected to that title.
ReplyDeleteWhat? No Brachypodium distachyon? It's politics, I tells ya!
ReplyDeleteAnd Trachemys scripta and Xenopus laevis...
ReplyDeleteThe honey bee, Apis mellifera? Perhaps this is considered "established" rather than "emerging"?
ReplyDeleteThe genome sequence has been done. Its a model organism for behavioural studies, an agricultural species, and one organism you can study polyphenism of body forms with. (Better not get me started on the latter, or I'll warble on! Fascinating topic.)
For beetles, would Tribolium castaneum deserve a look? (I know little about this organism.)
David, do the books give an overall taxonomy showing the model organisms or lack of model organisms for the various taxonomic groups? It'd be interesting to illustrate what groups are lagging behind, etc., and to put the new model organisms in context of taxonomic coverage?