What fruit fly species is a classic model organism in genetics?

The classic fruit fly model organism in genetics is Drosophila melanogaster. Often called the common fruit fly or vinegar fly, it became a foundational laboratory species because it breeds quickly, produces many offspring, and has readily visible inherited traits.

Thomas Hunt Morgan and his students used D. melanogaster at Columbia University’s famous Fly Room beginning in the early 20th century. Their experiments helped establish principles such as sex-linked inheritance, gene mapping, multiple alleles, and the role of chromosomes in heredity.

The species has only four pairs of chromosomes and can complete a generation in roughly 10 days under favorable laboratory conditions. Its giant polytene chromosomes, easily observed in larval salivary glands, also made gene activity unusually accessible to researchers. The name can cause confusion because “fruit fly” may also refer to unrelated tephritid flies, including economically important Mediterranean fruit flies.