This lead to a new paradigm for understanding how human disease genes function вЂ“ we can analyse their partners in the simpler organism. The DNA sequence of the Drosophila genome was published in 2000 (and this effort was basically funded as a test-run for methods used to sequence the human genome).Дrosophila only contain four chromosomes, as opposed to the 23 in humans, and their genome is approximately 1/26th of the size, making genetic analysis much simpler.ДЄ survey in 2001 showed that 75% of known human disease genes had an identifiable match (or orthologue) in Drosophila. From flies to humansДЄ stunning result from this Drosophila work that nobody predicted emerged over the next two decades was the genes that regulate patterning of the body plan and organ development in Drosophila also play the same role in us! Then in 1980, in another herculean Nobel-prize winning effort, Christiane NГјsslein-Volhard and Eric Wieschaus screened hundreds of thousands of mutated embryos to identify genes that regulate embryonic development. positional cloning of a gene associated with a mutation by David Hogness in 1979.isolation of a tumour suppressor mutation by Elizabeth Gateff and Howard Schneiderman in 1967.physical mapping of a mutation to a chromosome by Theophilus Painter in 1934.The next few decades saw many вЂњfirstsвЂќ for Drosophila: exposure to X-rays can cause mutations (also resulting in a Nobel Prize to Hermann MГјller in 1946).exchange of genetic material between chromosomes means that offspring inherit chromosomes that are mixtures of those found in their parents.chromosomal inheritance specifies sex of an individual.Over the next few years, Hunt MorganвЂ™s team discovered concepts that are now fundamental to our understanding of biology, such as: Hunt MorganвЂ™s epiphany arrived when he identified mutant variants (including the famous white-eyed fly among thousands of red-eyed individuals) that inherited characteristics in the ratio precisely predicted by Mendel. Herein lie the major advantages of working with this organism: they are cheap to raise, breed prolifically in small bottles and have a breeding age of about ten days, so large-scale multi-generational breeding experiments can be rapidly performed. Hunt Morgan decided to use Drosophila to advance his own theories for reasons that are depressingly familiar to todayвЂ™s academic researchers вЂ“ he didnвЂ™t have much money or space available to him. The rocket to biological stardom for Drosophila really began in 1906 when it was adopted as an organism of study by Thomas Hunt Morgan, who would go on to become one of the most influential figures of 20th century biology and win the 1933 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine.ДЄt the turn of the century, Hunt Morgan was an established embryologist who did not agree with Charles DarwinвЂ™s theory of natural selection and was sceptical of the newly re-discovered work on genetic inheritance by an obscure Austrian monk named Gregor Mendel. The reason for the utility of Drosophila as a teaching tool comes from the enormous amount of genetic knowledge that we have of this small but complex organism that was first brought into a laboratory by William Castle at Harvard University in 1901. Many of us remember Drosophila as the fruit fly (or - more correctly - vinegar fly, as it feeds on yeast and is not closely related to the flies that terrify our orchardists) as an animal used to teach high-school or undergraduate genetics and that they come in variants with different-coloured eyes. He didnвЂ™t have the benefit of molecular genetics to inform him of a deeper meaning behind his simile of consciousness and existence.

Drosophila mutations list