FLICKR, HAFIZ ISSADEEN
Species: House fly (Musca domestica)
Genome size: 691 million base pairs
The common house fly can be a major nuisance, but its abilities to tolerate pathogens and decompose waste make it a useful research subject. The house fly genome, published today (October 13) in Genome Biology, reveals expanded repertoires of genes involved in pathogen responses, detoxification, and chemosensing compared with the 123-million-base-pair genome of the fruit fly Drosophila melanogaster.
“House flies are a fascinating insect for scientists in many areas, such as developmental biology, sex determination, immunity, toxicology and physiology,” Jeff Scott, Cornell University entomologist and lead author of the paper announcing the sequencing feat, said in a press release. “The completed genome will be a phenomenal tool for researchers in all of these fields ...
