In the "Real Life Example" in the tutorial "Life, Natural Selection, and Evolution", you were introduced to the Evolution Canyons in Israel (review this example from the tutorial if you do not recall the information). Researchers are interested in a variety of organisms’ responses to the extreme environmental differences between the south-facing (“African”) and north-facing (“European”) slopes of the Evolution Canyons.
One team of researchers is looking at evolutionary responses in a common soil bacterium Bacillus subtilis in the Evolutionary Canyons. B. subtilis is a good choice of organism for this research because it is a common model organism that has been used to study prokaryote genetics and the process of DNA replication in prokaryotes in laboratory settings. Model organisms are non-human organisms that have been studied extensively to allow us to better understand common biological phenomena and principles. We use model organisms because they are genetically related to humans but are cheaper and easier to study because they have shorter generation times and are typically easy to raise in a laboratory. There are also usually fewer ethical concerns related to the use of model organisms. Because B. subtilis has been studied so extensively, we already know a great deal about its basic genetics.
Some of the team’s research findings include that the B. subtilis that live on the south-facing slopes are more efficient at producing biological molecules (“biosynthesis”) than those that live on the north-facing slope (Nevo, 2009).
To learn more about why scientists use model organisms, view the video below:
To watch this video on YouTube (and see closed captioning) - press the arrow icon in the bottom right corner of the video player.
Reference
Nevo, E. (2009) Evolution in action across life in "Evolution Canyon" Israel. Trends in Evolutionary Biology; 1:e3 doi:10.4081/eb.2009.e3