title: Old knowledge and new technologies allow rapid development of model organisms.
abstract: Until recently the set of "model" species used commonly for cell biology was limited to a small number of well-understood organisms, and developing a new model was prohibitively expensive or time-consuming. With the current rapid advances in technology, in particular low-cost high-throughput sequencing, it is now possible to develop molecular resources fairly rapidly. Wider sampling of biological diversity can only accelerate progress in addressing cellular mechanisms and shed light on how they are adapted to varied physiological contexts. Here we illustrate how historical knowledge and new technologies can reveal the potential of nonconventional organisms, and we suggest guidelines for selecting new experimental models. We also present examples of nonstandard marine metazoan model species that have made important contributions to our understanding of biological processes.
authors.affiliation: European Bioinformatics Institute, European Molecular Biology Laboratory, Wellcome Genome Campus, Hinxton CB10 1SD, United Kingdom.
authors.forename: Charles E
authors.initials: CE
authors.lastname: Cook
authors.affiliation: Sorbonne Universités, UPMC Univ Paris 06, CNRS, Laboratoire de Biologie du Développement de Villefranche-sur-mer, 06230 Villefranche-sur-mer, France.
authors.forename: Janet
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Chenevert
authors.affiliation: Developmental Biology Unit, European Molecular Biology Laboratory, 69117 Heidelberg, Germany.
authors.forename: Tomas A
authors.initials: TA
authors.lastname: Larsson
authors.affiliation: Developmental Biology Unit, European Molecular Biology Laboratory, 69117 Heidelberg, Germany.
authors.forename: Detlev
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Arendt
authors.affiliation: Sorbonne Universités, UPMC Univ Paris 06, CNRS, Laboratoire de Biologie du Développement de Villefranche-sur-mer, 06230 Villefranche-sur-mer, France.
authors.forename: Evelyn
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Houliston
authors.affiliation: Cell Biology and Biophysics Unit, European Molecular Biology Laboratory, 69117 Heidelberg, Germany lenart@embl.de.
authors.forename: Péter
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Lénárt
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D003585:Cell Biology; D023421:Models, Animal