Fascinating Flies with Dr. Jon Schnorr
Dr. Schnorr's laboratory uses the common fruit fly, Drosophila melanogaster, to investigate basic questions in the biological sciences.
The fruit fly has been intensely studied for more than 90 years and has become one of the most important model systems for the study of biology. It is not that the fruit fly is an important pest; rather, investigations over time have shown that the biological principles discovered in flies often hold true in other systems (like humans).
Flies are economical and simple to raise in the lab, and decades of genetic studies have given present day Drosophila biologists many mutant strains, specialized chromosomes, and powerful techniques that simplify answering basic biological questions.
Flies have been critical to our increased understanding of development, particularly how animals form their basic body plans.Flies remain at the forefront of biological research, especially in areas such as signal transduction and neurobiology.
In 2000, the entire DNA sequence of the Drosophila Genome became available, adding to the power and efficiency of this model system.