Junk Jar
Fly rooms have mineral oil morgues, beetle rooms have junk jars. Similar to your kitchen junk drawer, these pages contains our lab miscellany. Some are informative, others purely entertaining.
Germband Extension and Retraction
Tribolium HOMC I
Tribolium Homeotic Mutants
The Beetle Song
A parody, lyrics written by Dick Beeman. As you read, hum the tune
of "I Am the Very Model of a Modern Major General" from the Gilbert
and Sullivan operetta, Pirates of Penzance.
Drosophila is best for most experiments genetical.
Proposing other organisms clearly is heretical.
Polytenization of the larval salivary gland
Confers a benefit you must admit is really very grand.
Claims of its advantages are more than just rhetorical,
Accumulating, rather, in developments historical.
Skeptical biologists in doubt about its relevance
Need merely ponder mobilizable genetic elements.
Nondisjunction of the X's, mitotic recombination,
Also germline transformation, in situ hybridization,
Duplications, balancers, both modern and traditional,
And other useful mutants with lethality conditional.
Drosophila melanogaster is the apex of creation.
All of Science looks to California for inspiration.
Species similarities in general are minimal,
But it's the very model of a higher diploid animal.
Comparably sophisticated chromosome manipulations
Can't be done with bugs at Agricultural Experiment Stations.
Thus, we must, in short, resort to lesser species pest in status,
Though, you know, melanogaster does sometimes infest tomatus.
While seeking bugs with mundane economical utility
In combination with a good genetic tractability,
Traversing inconspicuously the kitchen floor linoleum,
Behold! I found the drab and clumsy scavenger, Tribolium!
Tribolium castaneum, the finest insect in the nation,
Perfectly adapted to the laboratory situation,
Seldom flies, small genome size, omnivorous and vigorous,
Amenable to genetic manipulation rigorous.
A tolerance of crowding overpowering to muse upon,
Life cycle marked by brevity; Longevity--Methuselan.
Prolific and adaptable; like rats, they'll always be upon us,
Noted for promiscuous abandonment to sex anon'mous.
Though culturing Tribolium brings tedium deplorable
The problem with most other bugs is medium unstorable.
If you propose to study other insects, I must question why
A scientist would waste time with mosquitoes or the Hestian Fly.
Tribolium castaneum is the apex of creation.
All of Science gazes toward Manhattan for its inspiration.
Species similarities in general are minimal,
But it's the very model of a higher diploid animal.
Yes, species similarities in general are minimal,
But it's the very model of a higher diploid animal.
