Model Organisms

In order to understand the human body, model organisms are used as replacements for humans in experiments.  These organisms are chosen for a variety of factors.  First, they must be genetically similar to humans or have enough similarities in the area of study.  Next, they need to have a short generation span so the effects of the study can be observed through the entire lifespan and into furture generations.  During their lifespan, model organisms need to produce a large number of progenies to increase the sample size of the population.  The gene crosses must be controlled as well and they must be suited to live in lab settings.  Finally, the organisms need to have an accumulated body of knowledge.

There are a variety of model organisms used in reasearch.  The type of organism chosen is determined based on the focus of the research.  Some common types of model organisms include E. coli and saccharomysoes.    E. coli is a species of bacteria.  Despite being a single-celled prokaryote, they have significant value to scientific studies.  They are especially useful in studying cell respiration.  Saccharomyoes or yeast is another type of organims used in laboratory settings.  Scientists use this model organims to study processes like protien scretion, control of the cell cycle, and cell differentiation.