The 5th edition of the Asia Pacific Drosophila Research Conference (APDRC5) is being held in Pune, Maharashtra between January 6 and 10, 2020.
- This is first time, it is being held in India. The last four editions of this conference took place in Taipei, Seoul, Beijing and Osaka
- Indian Institute of Science Education and Research (IISER) is hosting this conference.
Objective
- The Asia Pacific Drosophila Research Conferences (APDRC) are biennial events that aim to promote the interaction of Drosophila Researchers in the Asia-Pacific region with their peers in the rest of the world.
- The conference bring together scientists from all over the world who use the fruit fly, Drosophila, as a model organism to address basic and applied questions.
About Drosophila
- Drosophila is one of the most widely-used and preferred model organisms in biological research across the world for the last 100 years.
- Several discoveries in biology have been made using this.
- Its genome is entirely sequenced and there is enormous information available about its biochemistry, physiology and behaviour.
- The Drosophila has many practical features that allow scientists to carry out research with ease: A short life cycle, ease of culture and maintenance, and a low number of chromosomes a small genome size (in terms of base pairs), but giant salivary gland chromosomes, known as polytene chromosomes.
