TY - JOUR TI - The secret lives of Drosophila flies AU - Markow, Therese Ann VL - 4 PY - 2015 DA - 2015/06/04 SP - e06793 C1 - eLife 2015;4:e06793 DO - 10.7554/eLife.06793 UR - https://doi.org/10.7554/eLife.06793 AB - Flies of the genus Drosophila, and particularly those of the species Drosophila melanogaster, are best known as laboratory organisms. As with all model organisms, they were domesticated for empirical studies, but they also continue to exist as wild populations. Decades of research on these flies in the laboratory have produced astounding and important insights into basic biological processes, but we have only scratched the surface of what they have to offer as research organisms. An outstanding challenge now is to build on this knowledge and explore how natural history has shaped D. melanogaster in order to advance our understanding of biology more generally. KW - the natural history of model organism KW - species KW - natural history KW - ecology JF - eLife SN - 2050-084X PB - eLife Sciences Publications, Ltd ER -