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Biological research has long relied on a small number of model organisms, species chosen
because they are amenable to laboratory research and suitable for the study of a range of
biological problems. It is only a slight exaggeration to say that the basic workings of the
cell were elucidated mostly from experiments on a few single-celled organisms – primarily E. coli and yeast;
our understanding of animal development was largely based on the genetics of fruitfly and worm,
and manipulation of the frog and mouse; and most of what we learned about the molecular and
developmental biology of plants came from examining Arabidopsis and just a few other species.
But the variety of organisms studied is currently undergoing a massive expansion, as the time and costs of sequencing genomes drops, as techniques for selectively altering the expression patterns of genes become more generally applicable, and as more and more biologists expand their interests from the purely mechanistic to include evolutionary considerations.
Instead of focusing on the few standard model organisms, researchers are now introducing new species to the laboratory, opening up new avenues of research and allowing comparison and refinement of our understanding of already-established models. Emerging Model Organisms articles introduce the reader to this new generation of model organisms and provide a diverse catalog of potential species useful for extending research in new directions. Each collected volume is also available as a printed laboratory manual.
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