Drosophila melanogaster (Meigen, 1830): A Potential Model for Human Diseases

• Authors: Ridwan Olamilekan Adesola , Jadalhaq Taiwo Lawal , Oluwatobi Emmanuel Oladele
• Languages of publication: EN

Abstracts

EN

Over some time, Drosophila melanogaster (Meigen, 1830), commonly called fruit fly, has been used as a model organism in both scientific and medical research. Drosophila in comparison with other mammalian species shares some basic features like physiological, biological, biochemical, and neurological resemblances which make them suitable for use for biomedical research. Fruit fly can be maintained efficiently at a reduced cost in the laboratory, and it is endorsed as an alternative model compared to other vertebrates. It is confirmed and documented that almost 75 % of human disease-causing genes have functional similarities in Drosophila. Nevertheless, the use of D. melanogaster as a model organism was not narrowed to genetic research only, but several experiments. The use of this organism as a model for human diseases has also led to findings like neurodegenerative diseases, Huntington’s disease, spinocerebellar ataxia type 3, cancer, cardiovascular, inflammation and infectious diseases, and metabolic disorders. The fly is used as an ideal model organism for neurodegenerative disease studies such as Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s, which have become more predominant in today's aging population due to its complex nervous system which conserved neurological function, and the human disease-related loci. In this review, we presented and discussed Drosophila melanogaster as a model to study several human diseases.

Keywords

EN

Drosophila melanogaster; Huntington’s disease; human diseases; neurodegenerative disease; spinocerebellar ataxia type 3

Discipline

• VETERINARY_MEDICINE: VETERINARY MEDICINE

• Publisher: Scientific Publishing House „DARWIN”
• Journal: World News of Natural Sciences
• Year: 2021
• Volume: 36
• Pages: 42-59

Contributors

author

Ridwan Olamilekan Adesola

• Department of Veterinary Medicine, Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, University of Ibadan, Ibadan, Oyo State, Nigeria

author

Jadalhaq Taiwo Lawal

• Department of Veterinary Medicine, Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, University of Ibadan, Ibadan, Oyo State, Nigeria

author

Oluwatobi Emmanuel Oladele

• Department of Microbiology, University of Lagos, Akoka, Lagos State, Nigeria

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• Document Type: article