Model organisms

Question 1

Two main groups of model organisms?

Answer 1

Invertebrates and vertebrates

Question 2

Examples of model organism invertebrates?

Answer 2

Fruit flies, nematodes, urchin

Question 3

Examples of vertebrate model organisms?

Answer 3

Frogs, mice, chickens, zebrafish

Question 4

Main considerations when choosing a model organism?

Answer 4

of embryos, cost, access, micromanipulation, genetics, gene inventory

Question 5

Sea urchin name?

Answer 5

Strongylocentrotus purpurantus

Question 6

Pros of sea urchin as a model organism?

Answer 6

Short generation time, fast embryogenesis, large number of progeny, transparent embryo, fully sequenced genome, easy to grow

Question 7

Who demonstrated artificial embryo twinning?

Answer 7

Hans Driech

Question 8

What did advanced embryo twinning show?

Answer 8

Each cell in the embryo has a full set of genetic info and so is capable of growing into a full organism

Question 9

Fruit fly name?

Answer 9

Drosophila melanogaster

Question 10

Pros of fruit fly?

Answer 10

Short life, lots of progeny, easy and cheap to maintain, can manipulate larvae, easy to make mutants, fully sequenced genome

Question 11

Who first linked a specific gene to a specific chromosome?

Answer 11

Thomas hunt morgan

Question 12

Who isolated and characterised the trithorax homeotic gene mutation in Drosophila melanogaster?

Answer 12

Philip Ingham

Question 13

Nematode name?

Answer 13

Caenorhabditis elegans

Question 14

Pros of nematodes as a model organism?

Answer 14

Short gen time, large # of progeny, rapid embryogenesis, cheap to bread, can be frozen, transparent, easy to disrupt gene function

Question 15

What was the first fully sequenced multicellular organism?

Answer 15

Caenorhabditis elegans (nemantodes)

Question 16

Whos research led to the mapping of the whole nervous system of nemantodes, and proposed they should be used as model organisms?

Answer 16

Sydney Brenner

Question 17

Frog name?

Answer 17

Xenopus laevis

Question 18

Pros of a frog as a model organism?

Answer 18

Large number of eggs, rapid development, easy and cheap to maintain, large egg, easy to manipulate, tetraploid genome which is sequenced

Question 19

Who cloned frogs using a nucleus from a somatic cell?

Answer 19

John Gurdon

Question 20

Who discovered that adult cells can be converted to stem cells?

Answer 20

John Gurdon

Question 21

Who developed the three-signal model for mesoderm induction?

Answer 21

Jonathan Slack

Question 22

Chicken name?

Answer 22

Gallus gallus

Question 23

Pros of chicken as a model organism?

Answer 23

Good progeny numbers, easy to incubate eggs, easy to manipulate surgically, diploid, genome is sequenced

Question 24

Who developed an embryo manipulation technique to produce chimeric embryos?

Answer 24

Nicole Le Douarin

Question 25

Who determined that precursors in the neural crest were multipotent?

Answer 25

Nicole Le Douarin

Question 26

Mouse name?

Answer 26

Mus musculus

Question 27

Pros of mouse as a model organism?

Answer 27

Reasonable progeny numbers, large colonies, short embryogenesis, transgenics easy to obtain, genome sequenced

Question 28

Cons of a mouse as a model organism?

Answer 28

Expensive to maintain and difficult to access embryos

Question 29

Who was the first scientist to culture mouse cells?

Answer 29

Martin Evans

Question 30

Who was the first to generate transgenic mice by injection of genetically modified embryonic stem cells into blastocysts

Answer 30

Martin Evans

Question 31

Zebrafish name?

Answer 31

Danio rerio

Question 32

Pros of zebrafish as a model organism?

Answer 32

Large progeny, transparent embryo, genome sequenced, easy to manipulate gene expression

Question 33

Who set up a large scale mutagenesis screen of zebrafish embryos?

Answer 33

Christiane Nüsslein-Volhard