Advantages of model organisms

Model organisms are used for many reasons. The following advantages of model organisms apply to different degrees for any model organism.

• Easy to breed and maintain in a laboratory setup

• Short generation times

• Large number of offspring

• Well studied genome

• Robust embryos, such as chick embryos that can be manipulated easily

• Decreased complexity compared to humans

• Efficient manipulation of genomes

• Less ethical concerns compared to research on humans

• Pivotal position in evolutionary tree