StemCell Therapy

IN this issue of GENETICS we launch FlyBook, which will present the current state of knowledge of the molecular biology, cellular biology, developmental biology, and genetics of the fruit fly Drosophila.

That we commence this project at the end of the journals first century is fitting: it was work on Drosophila that established the genetic basis of Mendels laws of inheritance (leading to Drosophilas first Nobel prize in 1933). In fact, the very first article published in the journal described experiments with Drosophila that established chromosomes as the carriers of hereditary information (watch for a Perspectives article in January commemorating that article).

The prominence of Drosophila in the pantheon of model organisms is undisputed. T. H. Morgan knew that it could serve as a model multicellular organism when he chose it for his path-breaking work early in the last century, and his prescience has been apparent in nearly every issue of GENETICS. In fact, >20% of the 18,000 articles in GENETICS feature Drosophila in the title!

We did not need to be reminded of how similar Drosophilas genes are to those of other organisms (including ours) when complete genome sequences started appearing 15 years ago, but it was heartening to see. Studies of Drosophila will no doubt continue to inform biology for decades to come.

We have acquired an enormous amount of information about the biology of the fruit fly, and have devised innovative experimental approaches for its study. FlyBook aims to make that information and insight accessible to scientists unfamiliar with Drosophila as well as to the seasoned Drosophila researcher.

FlyBook will span the breadth of Drosophila biology in 50 chapters that will appear as review articles in GENETICS, and will also be compiled on a separate FlyBook website. This enables FlyBook to benefit from the established infrastructure of GENETICSits professional preparation and presentation of articles; its indexing, search, and navigation functions; helpful article features unique to GENETICS, such as direct linking of terms to FlyBase; and its outstanding peer editing. GENETICS is a fitting venue for this updated model of a book.

Experts in their fields will write the chapters, which will be edited by a stellar group of scientists serving on the FlyBook Editorial Board. We thank our Section editors and the authors for their selfless service to GENETICS, to the Genetics Society of America (GSA), and to science.

Work on the fruit fly has yielded much insight into neurobiology, so it is fitting that we launch FlyBook with two articles on this subject. In addition, a Commentary by Gerry Rubin sets FlyBook in perspective.

FlyBook continues the GSAs long tradition of supporting, promoting, and presenting model organism research. FlyBook joins Yeastbook (http://www.genetics.org/site/misc/yeastbook.xhtml) as an important resource for the genetics community. We are proud to present in this issue of GENETICS the first two chapters of what we know will be a seminal series of articles.

Section Editors CELL SIGNALING Marek Mlodzik Mount Sinai School of Medicine Jessica E. Treisman New York University School of Medicine

DEVELOPMENT & GROWTH Trudi Schpbach Princeton University Carl S. Thummel University of Utah

ECOLOGY & EVOLUTION Terese Ann Markow University of California, San Diego Trudy F. C. Mackay North Carolina State University

GENE EXPRESSION Brian Oliver NIH Eileen Furlong EMBL

GENOME ORGANIZATION Sue Celniker Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory Gary Karpen Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory

METHODS Norbert Perrimon Harvard Medical School Hugo Bellen Baylor College of Medicine

NERVOUS SYSTEM & BEHAVIOR John R. Carlson Yale University James W. Truman HHMI, Janelia Research Campus

REPAIR, RECOMBINATION, & CELL DIVISION R. Scott Hawley Stowers Institute for Medical Research Terry Orr-Weaver MIT

STEM CELLS & GERMLINE Ruth Lehmann NYU School of Medicine, Skirball Institute Allan C. Spradling HHMI

See the rest here:
FlyBook! | Genetics

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