A Howard Hughes Medical Institute (HHMI) professor and 138 of his undergraduates have co-authored a paper that provides the first genome-wide estimate of vital genes that are also essential for eye development of the common fruit fly.

Banerjee and his students identified 501 essential genes responsible for processes such as repair, cell death, and cell replication in the fruit fly’s developing eye.

They report the results of their research and the impact of their research-based learning project in the February 2005 issue of PLoS (Public Library of Science) Biology.

It won’t be easy to find a paper with 138 undergraduate authors, said Banerjee, one of 20 HHMI professors who received $1 million grants in 2002 to improve undergraduate biology education. In fact, this could easily be the first paper ever published with that many undergraduate authors that has serious science in it. 

［简译］美国霍华德-休斯医学研究所的一名教授和他的138名学生日前发表了一份研究报告。这份报告首次确定了在果蝇眼睛的形成及发育过程中一些必不可少的重要基因。

据美国“霍华德-休斯医学研究所网站”日前报道，该研究所的乌特帕-班尼杰和他在美国加利福尼亚大学执教的一个特殊的生物学习班的138名学生共同撰写了这份研究报告。该报告向人们提供了对普通果蝇(黑腹果蝇Drosophila melanogaster)眼睛发育至关重要的第一个基因组范围评估。

在有丝分裂重组中利用翻转酶是一种标准化技术，常常被果蝇遗传学家用来研究突变对果蝇产生的影响。班尼杰和他学生的真正成就是利用这种办法在果蝇眼睛中制造出了同型结合突变(homozygous mutation)，并创建了一个描述突变显型和表达的数据库。其他研究人员也可以利用这些研究资料确定这些基因在其他组织中的功能。