Biological discoveries via model oraganism research
I just find it cool that working on simple model organisms have resulted in so many disrupitions in biology/medicine. I'm listing some of my favorite ones here.
D. melanogaster - Fruitfly
- Evidence for the chromosome theory of heredity
- First linear ordering of genes on a chromosome
- X-rays shown to induce mutations in a dose-dependent way
- Polytene chromosomes used for chromosome mapping
- Conserved chromosome arms described, now called Muller elements
- First mutants with altered circadian period
- Genetic screen for embryonic patterning mutants
- P-element germline transformation
- Cloning of the homeotic gene Ubx
- Cloning of the circadian gene period
- GAL4/UAS expression system, adapted from yeast
- Toll and the innate immune response
- Molecular mechanisms of the circadian clock
D. rerio - Zebrafish
- Clonal lines of homozygous diploid fish, the start of zebrafish genetics
- First large-scale forward genetic screens in a vertebrate
- Morpholinos shown to knock down genes in zebrafish
- Tol2 transposon, from medaka, developed for zebrafish transgenesis
- Adult zebrafish regrow heart muscle after part of the ventricle is removed
- The golden gene, slc24a5, and its role in human skin pigmentation
- Human BRAF V600E causes moles in zebrafish, and melanoma when combined with p53 loss
- Prostaglandin E2 found to expand blood stem cells, later tested in cord blood transplants
- Blood stem cells imaged emerging from the aorta in a live embryo
- Whole-brain imaging of neural activity at cellular resolution, in larval zebrafish
- About 70% of human genes have a zebrafish ortholog
C. elegans - Roundworm
- Genetic pathways for sex determination and dosage compensation described
- Identification of mutations affecting touch sensitivity
- First germline stem cell niche identified
- Notch signaling, presenilins, ternary complex, and lateral inhibition roles in development described
- First complete metazoan cell lineage
- First genes controlling programmed cell death (apoptosis)
- First complete wiring diagram of a nervous system
- Discovery of the first axon guidance genes
- Identification of role of Notch signaling in embryonic blastomeres
- Discovery of par genes, whose products affect the asymmetric distribution of cellular components in embryos
- Worm genes helped define the LIM and POU homeodomain families
- Demonstration of a role for insulin pathway genes in regulating lifespan
- Identification of genes for conserved synaptic functions
- First microRNA (lin-4) and its mRNA target (lin-14) described
- Identification of nonsense-mediated decay genes
- Introduction of GFP as a biological marker
- First demonstration of specific olfactory receptor/ligand pair
- First metazoan genome sequenced
- Double-stranded RNA identified as the trigger of RNA interference (RNAi)
- Conservation and ubiquity of miRNAs
- First use of channelrhodopsin optogenetics in an intact animal
S. cerevisiae - (Brewer's) yeast
- cdc genes controlling the cell division cycle
- Molecular basis of eukaryotic transcription
- Genes controlling vesicle traffic and secretion
- Genes controlling autophagy
- Yeast mismatch repair genes used to find the human colon cancer genes hMSH2 and hMLH1
- The [PSI+] prion and protein-based inheritance
- Human disease gene homologs that rescue yeast deletion mutants
- Genome-wide deletion collection, with barcoded strains
- Genome-wide protein localization with GFP fusions
- Large-scale protein and genetic interaction maps
- Evidence for an ancient whole-genome duplication
Sources
- C. elegans: Corsi, Wightman & Chalfie 2015, A Transparent Window into Biology: A Primer on Caenorhabditis elegans, Genetics
- D. melanogaster: FlyBook primer, Hales et al. 2015
- S. cerevisiae: YeastBook essay, Botstein & Fink 2011
- D. rerio, from several papers:
- Streisinger et al. 1981, Nature (clonal lines)
- Haffter et al. 1996 and Driever et al. 1996, Development (genetic screens)
- Nasevicius & Ekker 2000, Nature Genetics (morpholinos)
- Kawakami, Shima & Kawakami 2000, PNAS, and Kawakami et al. 2004, Developmental Cell (Tol2)
- Poss et al. 2002, Science (heart regeneration)
- Lamason et al. 2005, Science (golden)
- Patton et al. 2005, Current Biology (melanoma)
- North et al. 2007, Nature (prostaglandin E2), and Cutler et al. 2013, Blood (cord blood trial)
- Bertrand et al. 2010 and Kissa & Herbomel 2010, Nature (blood stem cells)
- Ahrens et al. 2013, Nature Methods (whole-brain imaging)
- Howe et al. 2013, Nature (genome)
- Nobel Prize work: nobelprize.org