Model organisms Flashcards
Two main groups of model organisms?
Invertebrates and vertebrates
Examples of model organism invertebrates?
Fruit flies, nematodes, urchin
Examples of vertebrate model organisms?
Frogs, mice, chickens, zebrafish
Main considerations when choosing a model organism?
of embryos, cost, access, micromanipulation, genetics, gene inventory
Sea urchin name?
Strongylocentrotus purpurantus
Pros of sea urchin as a model organism?
Short generation time, fast embryogenesis, large number of progeny, transparent embryo, fully sequenced genome, easy to grow
Who demonstrated artificial embryo twinning?
Hans Driech
What did advanced embryo twinning show?
Each cell in the embryo has a full set of genetic info and so is capable of growing into a full organism
Fruit fly name?
Drosophila melanogaster
Pros of fruit fly?
Short life, lots of progeny, easy and cheap to maintain, can manipulate larvae, easy to make mutants, fully sequenced genome
Who first linked a specific gene to a specific chromosome?
Thomas hunt morgan
Who isolated and characterised the trithorax homeotic gene mutation in Drosophila melanogaster?
Philip Ingham
Nematode name?
Caenorhabditis elegans
Pros of nematodes as a model organism?
Short gen time, large # of progeny, rapid embryogenesis, cheap to bread, can be frozen, transparent, easy to disrupt gene function
What was the first fully sequenced multicellular organism?
Caenorhabditis elegans (nemantodes)
Whos research led to the mapping of the whole nervous system of nemantodes, and proposed they should be used as model organisms?
Sydney Brenner
Frog name?
Xenopus laevis
Pros of a frog as a model organism?
Large number of eggs, rapid development, easy and cheap to maintain, large egg, easy to manipulate, tetraploid genome which is sequenced
Who cloned frogs using a nucleus from a somatic cell?
John Gurdon
Who discovered that adult cells can be converted to stem cells?
John Gurdon
Who developed the three-signal model for mesoderm induction?
Jonathan Slack
Chicken name?
Gallus gallus
Pros of chicken as a model organism?
Good progeny numbers, easy to incubate eggs, easy to manipulate surgically, diploid, genome is sequenced
Who developed an embryo manipulation technique to produce chimeric embryos?
Nicole Le Douarin
Who determined that precursors in the neural crest were multipotent?
Nicole Le Douarin
Mouse name?
Mus musculus
Pros of mouse as a model organism?
Reasonable progeny numbers, large colonies, short embryogenesis, transgenics easy to obtain, genome sequenced
Cons of a mouse as a model organism?
Expensive to maintain and difficult to access embryos
Who was the first scientist to culture mouse cells?
Martin Evans
Who was the first to generate transgenic mice by injection of genetically modified embryonic stem cells into blastocysts
Martin Evans
Zebrafish name?
Danio rerio
Pros of zebrafish as a model organism?
Large progeny, transparent embryo, genome sequenced, easy to manipulate gene expression
Who set up a large scale mutagenesis screen of zebrafish embryos?
Christiane Nüsslein-Volhard
