The current “stars” of lab model systems—round worms, fruit flies, and yeasts—are too limited, says Graham Warren, professor at the Max F. Perutz Laboratories at the University and Medical University of Vienna and ASCB member. “The time has come to revisit the old literature and to resurrect the organisms that are buried there, both to uncover new mechanisms and to marvel at the richness of the cellular world,” Warren writes, in the latest issue of the Journal of Cell Biology. The Warren lab uses the protozoan parasite Trypanosoma brucei as a model to study Golgi duplication.
Warren cites examples of forgotten organisms from the past. Nobel Prize winner George Palade used guinea pig acinar cells and Günther Blobel studied microsomes from dog cells. Telomerases were first characterized in the protozoa Tetrahymena thermophila. Different model organisms can provide new opportunities for investigating “fascinating cellular functions that cannot easily be explained using current knowledge,” Warren contends.
Another example that Warren gives are chaetae, bristles common on invertebrates like sea worms. Chaetae are microscopic but are too large to be produced inside the cell. “This biological system has all the hallmarks of a 3D printer,” Warren declares, suggesting that chaetae could open a new field of biological 3D printing or reveal fundamental cell processes such as patterning of the cytoskeleton.
Warren encourages researchers “to use whatever system can best answer the questions that most fascinate you, even if it means straying beyond the confines of the crown eukaryotes.”
Warren is one of many ASCB members working on organisms outside the standard canon. Here are several other examples of nontraditional model organisms reported on by the ASCB Post staff:
Will Aiptasia, a Sea Anemone with an Algal Symbiont, Become the Next C. elegans?
The Flatworm Turns (Over)—Regenerating Planaria Show Hidden Talents
Nontraditional Animal Models—The Ground Squirrel
Beyond the Zebrafish, the Other Teleosts
Nontraditional Animal Models—The Axolotl
Old Lab Animal Model Systems Gain New Respect—Paramecium Redux
About the Author:
Christina Szalinski is a science writer with a PhD in Cell Biology from the University of Pittsburgh.
