Drosophila Genetic Resource Center, Kyoto Institute of Technology, Kyoto, Japan.
Exp Anim. 2010;59(2):125-38. doi: 10.1538/expanim.59.125.
The fruit fly, Drosophila melanogaster, is not categorized as a laboratory animal, but it is recognised as one of the most important model organisms for basic biology, life science, and biomedical research. This tiny fly continues to occupy a core place in genetics and genomic approaches to studies of biology and medicine. The basic principles of genetics, including the variations of phenotypes, mutations, genetic linkage, meiotic chromosome segregation, chromosome aberrations, recombination, and precise mapping of genes by genetic as well as cytological means, were all derived from studies of Drosophila. Recombinant DNA technology was developed in the 1970s and Drosophila DNA was the first among multicellular organisms to be cloned. It provided a detailed characterization of genes in combination of classical cytogenetic data. Drosophila thus became the pioneering model organism for various fields of life science research into multicellular organisms. Here, I briefly describe the history of Drosophila research and provide a few examples of the application of the abundant genetic resources of Drosophila to basic biology and medical investigations. A Japanese national project, the National BioResource Project (NBRP) for collection, maintainance, and provision of Drosophila resources, that is well known and admired by researchers in other countries as an important project, is also briefly described.
果蝇（Drosophila melanogaster）不属于实验动物，但它被认为是基础生物学、生命科学和生物医学研究中最重要的模式生物之一。这种小蝇继续在遗传学和基因组方法的生物学和医学研究中占据核心地位。遗传学的基本原理，包括表型的变异、突变、遗传连锁、减数分裂染色体分离、染色体畸变、重组以及通过遗传和细胞学手段对基因的精确作图，都源于对果蝇的研究。重组 DNA 技术于 20 世纪 70 年代发展起来，而果蝇 DNA 是第一个在多细胞生物中被克隆的。它结合经典细胞遗传学数据提供了对基因的详细描述。因此，果蝇成为多细胞生物生命科学研究各个领域的先驱模式生物。在这里，我简要描述了果蝇研究的历史，并提供了一些将果蝇丰富的遗传资源应用于基础生物学和医学研究的例子。日本的一个国家项目，即收集、保存和提供果蝇资源的国家生物资源项目（NBRP），作为一个重要项目在其他国家的研究人员中广为人知和受到赞赏，也在这里简要介绍。
