Digital three-dimensional models of Drosophila development

Curr Opin Genet Dev. 2004 Aug;14(4):382-91. doi: 10.1016/j.gde.2004.06.010.

Abstract

Digital models of organs, cells and subcellular structures have become important tools in biological and medical research. Reaching far beyond their traditional widespread use as didactic tools, computer-generated models serve as electronic atlases to identify specific elements in complex patterns, and as analytical tools that reveal relationships between such pattern elements that would remain obscure in two-dimensional sections. Digital models also offer the unique opportunity to store and display gene-expression patterns, and pilot studies have been made in several genetic model organisms, including mouse, Drosophila and Caenorhabditis elegans, to construct digital graphic databases intended as repositories for gene-expression data.

Publication types

  • Comparative Study
  • Research Support, U.S. Gov't, P.H.S.
  • Review

MeSH terms

  • Animals
  • Central Nervous System / cytology
  • Computer Graphics
  • Databases, Factual
  • Drosophila / embryology*
  • Embryonic Development / genetics
  • Embryonic Development / physiology*
  • Gene Expression Regulation, Developmental*
  • Models, Anatomic*
  • Morphogenesis