Model organisms should have relatively
small genome, should
reproduce fast, and should be easily to handled in a lab. An opossum or a pig is certainly not a good model organism, primarily because they are marsupials and because of their size, respectively. Generally, some of these features, especially at the molecular level, are true of all known living forms. For others there is some variation between large groups of organisms.
Mus musculus,
the house mouse, the
model organism for vertebrates. It has been studied to compare the genetic basis of vertebrate and invertebrate development as well as to explore the genetics of antigen-antibody systems, of maternal-fetal interactions in utero, and in understanding the genetics of cancer. Dr. I. M. Clueless is technically using an animal that is mainly endemic to North America, and so using it could, in turn, decrease its numbers (decrease their population in the wild). Mice, on the other hands, are more common than human (
), so decreasing their numbers isn't much of an issue.
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