There are several advantages that make the fruit fly
Drosophila melanogaster the species of choice for developing
fast and reliable assay systems for detection of chemicals
with genotoxic activity. The main points are: it is a eukaryotic
organism with a short generation time (approximately
10 days at 25 ◦C); it has easily detectable genetically controlled
morphological characters; large numbers of mutants
and genetically characterized strains are available; culture
media are inexpensive and allow the breeding of large numbers
of animals using simple facilities and it is capable of
activating enzymatically promutagens and procarcinogens in
vivo