Role of Drosophila in Human Disease Research

Dear Colleagues,

For over a century, Drosophila melanogaster has been widely used in classical and modern genetics. For over a decade, Drosophila has been used as a highly tractable animal model for studying human diseases. Many biological functions, including physical and neurological properties, are highly conserved between humans and Drosophila. Moreover, nearly 75% of human-disease-causing genes have their functional homologues in Drosophila. Drosophila has been successful in the study of various neurodegenerative diseases, metabolic syndromes, and cancer. It is also playing a role in the evaluation of candidate substances for treatment of these human diseases. Currently, scientists are studying more complex psychiatric disorders, aging, and rare intractable human genetic diseases using Drosophila models. However, we always have to keep in mind both the benefits and limitations of fly models by comparing them to other animal models, such as mouse, zebra fish, and nematode worm models. For this Special Issue, we welcome original research articles and up-to-date review articles that provide novel insights into the related academic fields.

Prof. Masamitsu Yamaguchi
Prof. Shinya Yamamoto
Guest Editors

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