title: The secret lives of Drosophila flies.
abstract: Flies of the genus Drosophila, and particularly those of the species Drosophila melanogaster, are best known as laboratory organisms. As with all model organisms, they were domesticated for empirical studies, but they also continue to exist as wild populations. Decades of research on these flies in the laboratory have produced astounding and important insights into basic biological processes, but we have only scratched the surface of what they have to offer as research organisms. An outstanding challenge now is to build on this knowledge and explore how natural history has shaped D. melanogaster in order to advance our understanding of biology more generally.
authors.affiliation: Division of Biological Sciences, Laboratorio Nacional para Genomica de la Biodiversidad, La Jolla, United States.
authors.forename: Therese Ann
authors.initials: TA
authors.lastname: Markow
mesh_terms: D063147:Animal Distribution; D000818:Animals; D005075:Biological Evolution; D004331:Drosophila melanogaster / Q000502:physiology*; D004777:Environment; D023281:Genomics / Q000379:methods / Q000639:trends; D008018:Life Cycle Stages / Q000502:physiology*; D019021:Natural History / Q000379:methods / Q000639:trends; D010802:Phylogeny; D012098:Reproduction / Q000502:physiology; D013045:Species Specificity
keywords: D. melanogaster; ecology; evolutionary biology; genomics; natural history; species; the natural history of model organisms