Recent developments in efficient computer-based video analyses have allowed testing pesticide effects on model species such as the zebrafish.
In plants, the exploration of transgenerational response has remained exclusive to model species, such as Arabidopsis thaliana.
In recent years, genome-wide association studies (GWAS) have been widely adapted into species other than human, e.g. model species such as Arabidopsis thaliana1,2,3,4 and Drosophila melanogaster5,6.
However, quantification of WUE in small model species such as Arabidopsis is difficult because of low plant water loss relative to root zone evaporation.
Such effects have been shown for model species such as A. thaliana with varying levels of PsbS (Frenkel et al. 2009) but evidence for crops in the field is limited.
The support of efficient bioinformatics favored the introduction of the so-called high-throughput technologies, paving the way to the flourishing of genome sequencing efforts of key model species, such as Homo sapiens and Arabidopsis thaliana (Fig. 1).
Unlike many other insect model species, such as the fruit fly, the honey bee and the silk worm, locusts belong to the hemimetabolous branch of insects.
Spatial learning and memory have been intensively studied in humans [4], [5] and model species such as mice [6], [7] and rats [8], [9].
The genetic networks controlling floral development are extensively studied in model species such as Arabidopsis thaliana and are increasingly described in some non-model plants [9].
A range of high-throughput methods are currently developed for model species such as humans, but their use in non-model species with large genome size, high level of ploidy or redundancy is often a challenge [22].
Invertebrate studies on exercise during aging have been even fewer, in large part due to the dearth of available physiological assays suitable for smaller model species, such as flies and worms.
