Finding
He said that, in his opinion, the very best reviews distill so much of the essence of the relevant literature that they render the literature itself obsolete, except for historical purposes (and, perhaps one should add, for detailed data not possible to reproduce in a review).
Paper
EVOLUTIONARY GENETICS ON THE FLY
Citations: 1
Full textAbstract
Drosophila is a model organism for research at many levels: molecular biology, genetics, genomics, development, and neurobiology. It is Powell's thesis that Drosophila is also the model organism of choice for evolutionary biology. He avers that there is "information on the ecology, population biology, systematics, behavior, genetics, development, and molecular biology of this fly. No other model has been so thoroughly studied at all these levels." The relevance of all this information is that "if a major advance in understanding evolution is to be achieved (what some have called the 'newer synthesis'), it is most likely to come from integration of levels of knowledge centered on a single closely related set of species." Whence, The Drosophila Model. In content, the book reviews Drosophila population biology and ecology more thoroughly than these have been reviewed for nearly half a century. The relevant comparison in this regard is Patterson and Stone's Evolution in the Genus Drosophila (Patterson and Stone 1952). Both books have a similar objective: to summarize what is known about Drosophila evolutionary biology, while making it clear that Drosophila should not be regarded as unique but rather as a "general evolutionary system" (to use Patterson and Stone's synonym for "model") whose principles go far beyond the details of the organism itself. In 1952, however, there were about 10,000 publications dealing with Drosophila; today there are close to 80,000. Powell's review of the relevant literature satisfies the definition of "excellence" once shared with me by the late great Drosophila geneticist Larry Sandler. He said that, in his opinion, the very best reviews distill so much of the essence of the relevant literature that they render the literature itself obsolete, except for historical purposes (and, perhaps one should add, for detailed data not possible to reproduce in a review). Accordingly, those who wish to know where we are at present in Drosophila evolutionary biology, and how we got here, should start by examining Powell's book. There is a long and distinguished history of research on this organism at the population level; there is also, I hasten to add, a lively group of contemporary population researchers whose creative approaches have enriched our understanding of Drosophila and maintained its preeminence as a model organisms for evolutionary genetics. The organization of the book is almost inevitably historical. A great debt is owed to one of Powell's mentors, Theodosius Dobzhansky, who left his native Russia to visit Morgan's Drosophila laboratory at Columbia University in 1927
Authors
D. Hartl
Journal
Evolution