Model organinsm

 A model organism is a well established experimental biological system. Characteristics include: rapid rate of development to maturity; easily manipulated genetically; short life cycle (life span); readily available and a large number of offspring per generation. Common model organisms include: yeast (eg. Saccharomyces cerevisiae and Schizosaccharomyces pombe); some plants (eg. Arabidopsis thaliana); flys (eg.Drosophila); worms (eg. C. elegans); fish (eg. zebra fish) and mice (eg. mus musculus).