Number of genes directly related to human genes involved in disease

Range >500 (including 79 involved in cancer) genes
Organism Fruit fly Drosophila melanogaster
Reference Bunz F. Human cell knockouts. Curr Opin Oncol. 2002 Jan14(1):73-8. p.73 right column top paragraphPubMed ID11790984
Primary Source [1] Reiter LT, Potocki L, Chien S, et al.: A systematic analysis of human disease-associated gene sequences in Drosophila melanogaster. Genome Res 2001, 11: 1114–1125. DOI: 10.1101/gr.169101PubMed ID11381037
Method Primary source abstract: "[Investigators] performed a systematic analysis of 929 human disease gene entries associated with at least one mutant allele in the Online Mendelian Inheritance in Man (OMIM) database against the recently completed genome sequence of Drosophila melanogaster."
Comments P.73 right column top paragraph: "The systematic study of gene function requires the manipulation of genetically facile organisms. Many types of organisms have been used for this purpose, including viruses, bacteria, fungi, plants, and animals. Medical scientists necessarily look at biology from an anthropocentric perspective, and thus have been primarily concerned with the use of genetic data obtained from model organisms to infer how homologous human genes work. These model organisms need not be close relatives of humans to be useful. For example, an analysis of the recently sequenced Drosophila genome resulted in the identification of more than 500 genes directly related to human genes involved in disease, including 79 involved in cancer [primary source]."
Entered by Uri M
ID 113615