Animal testing on invertebrates
Most animal testing involves invertebrates, especially Drosophila melanogaster, a fruit fly, and Caenorhabditis elegans, a nematode. These animals offer scientists many advantages over vertebrates, including their short life cycle, simple anatomy and the ease with which large numbers of individuals may be studied. Invertebrates are often cost-effective,[1] as thousands of flies or nematodes can be housed in a single room.
With the exception of some cephalopods in the European Union, invertebrate species are not protected under most animal research legislation, and therefore the total number of invertebrates used remains unknown.[2]
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Research on invertebrates is the foundation for current understanding of the genetics of animal development. C. elegans is especially valuable as the precise lineage of all the organism's 959 somatic cells is known, giving a complete picture of how this organism goes from a single cell in a fertilized egg, to an adult animal.[3] The genome of this nematode has also been fully sequenced and any one of these genes can easily be inactivated through RNA interference, by feeding the worms antisense RNA.[4] A major success in the work on C. elegans was the discovery that particular cells are programmed to die during development, leading to the discovery that programmed cell death is an active process under genetic control.[5] The simple nervous system of this nematode allows the effects of genetics on the development of nerves to be studied in detail.[6] However, the lack of an adaptive immune system and the simplicity of its organs prevent C. elegans from being used in medical research such as vaccine development.[3]
The fly D. melanogaster is the most widely used animal in
Other uses of invertebrates include studies on social behavior.
See also
- Animal testing on non-human primates
- Animal testing on rodents
- Testing cosmetics on animals
- Pain in invertebrates
References
- ^ Andre, RG, RA Wirtz, and YT Das (1989). "Insect Models for Biomedical Research" Archived October 19, 2008, at the Wayback Machine. In: Nonmammalian Animal Models for Biomedical Research, AD Woodhead (Editor), CRC Press: Boca Raton, FL. Retrieved November 13, 2008.
- PMID 23535125.
- ^ PMID 15199953.
- PMID 14761308. Archived from the originalon 2007-10-22.
- PMID 14585071.
- PMID 16896949.
- PMID 17625558.
- PMID 15112229.
- PMID 15527959.
- PMID 15199954.
- PMID 15972468.
Further reading
General
- Lawrence PA. "The Making of a Fly: The Genetics of Animal Design." Blackwell Publishing Limited (March 1, 1992) ISBN 0-632-03048-8
- Demerec M. "Biology of Drosophila" Macmillan Pub Co. (January 2000) ISBN 0-02-843870-1
- Hall, DH. "C. Elegans Atlas" Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press (November 30, 2007) ISBN 0-87969-715-6
Practical
- Goldstein LSB, (Ed) Fryberg EA. "Methods in Cell Biology: Drosophila Melanogaster : Practical Uses in Cell and Molecular Biology" Academic Press (January 1995) ISBN 0-12-564145-1
- Epstein HF, (Ed), Shakes DC. "Methods in Cell Biology: Caenorhabditis Elegans : Modern Biological Analysis of an Organism" Academic Press (October 1995) ISBN 0-12-240545-5