It is estimated that 61% of known human disease genes have a recognisable match in the genetic code of fruit flies, and 50% of fly protein sequences have mammalian matches
Drosophila melanogaster is a valuable organism in biological research, particularly genetics and developmental biology.
The small, easy to grow fruit fly has become one of the most valuable of organisms in genetic and developmental biology research.
It has a short generation time (approximately two weeks), high productivity (females can lay 500 eggs in ten days) and the entire genome was sequenced in 1998.
It is estimated that 61% of known human disease genes have a recognisable match in the genetic code of fruit flies, and 50% of fly protein sequences have mammalian matches.
What this means is that the drosophila is being used as a genetic model for research in many human diseases including Parkinson's, Huntington's, Alzheimer's, diabetes, cancer, and drug abuse.
The developmental biology research initiative at McGill University (Montreal, Canada) has been using the Sanyo MIR-553 as fruit fly incubators for the past five years.
At this point it has 21 MIR-552/553s dedicated to growing drosophila for research.
The Sanyo MIR 153/253/553 incubators offer the ideal growth environment for fruit flies which grow best at temperatures between 22-25C.
The main advantages of the MIR series include excellent temperature uniformity (+/-0.5C), wide temperature range.
-10C to +50C (drosophila grows best at 22-24C), and three-step programming (researcher can set different time/ temperature parameters depending on their studies).
For example, inseminated fruit fly females can be 'revirginised' by prolonged incubation at -10C.
High/ low temperature alarms (+/-2.5C from set point), over-heat protection (heater turns off, setting range 15-55C) and low temperature protection (compressor turns off, setting range -15C to 20C).
