I designed another #LEGO set inspired by the "model" organisms of biological research!
This time, it's the tiny but mighty fruit fly #Drosophila melanogaster, which researchers have used to study all manner of biological processes.
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I designed the model to have adjustable limbs, wings, and even a retractable mouth.
Researchers that study fruit flies have uncovered the genes that are important for "building" the fly and its many body parts during development.
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Male and female flies differ – males have smaller abdomens with a darkened posterior, while females have a larger abdomen with a lighter underside.
Researchers who study fly genetics need to control which males and females mate, so these differences are crucial to know.
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Many of the important fly genes result in changes to morphology, or "phenotypes", that make them different from "wild type" flies.
I designed this set to include some of these mutants, such as a fly mutant for the "white" gene, which has white eyes...
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...or a fly with mutations in the gene Antennapedia, which transforms a fly's antennae into legs.
This gene is one of a family of genes called the Hox genes, found in most animals, which I studied during my PhD! Check out this video I made:
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Flies have allowed us to understand many different processes, including development, aging, regeneration, cancer, neurobiology, gene regulation, evolution, ecology... pretty much every field of biology.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Drosophil…
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Researchers studying fruit flies have won 6 Nobel Prizes, including most recently in 2017 for discovering the genes involved in the circadian rhythm – an ancient set of genes involved in controlling how you sleep.
nobelprize.org/prizes/medicin…
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If you're interested in learning more about research in fruit flies, I'd recommend checking out iBiology, a free website which has a lot of great videos explaining the cutting edge of biological research with talks from world experts:
ibiology.org
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I'm having a lot of fun designing fantasy #LEGO sets and would love to help other biologists highlight their research organisms and why they're interesting to study.
What should I try to build next?
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