You wish to explore how mutations in specific genes affecting sugar metabolism might alter tooth development. Which organism is likely to provide the best model system for your studies, and why?

Question

(a) horses
(b) mice
(c) E. coli
(d) Arabidopsis

Answer 1

(b) Mice are likely to provide the best model system. Mice have teeth and have long been used as a model organism. Mice reproduce relatively rapidly and the extensive scientific community that works with mice has developed techniques to facilitate genetic manipulations. E. coli (a bacterium) and Arabidopsis (a plant) do not have teeth. Horses like sugar and have big teeth, but they would not be a good model organism. There is not an extensive scientific community working on the molecular and biochemical mechanisms of cell behaviors in horses; they are expensive and have a long reproduction time, which makes genetic studies costly and slow; and tools for genetic manipulation (other than traditional breeding) have not been developed.