Plants |  Animals |
|
Thale cress lat. Arabidopsis thaliana Chromosome count: 2 x 5 Model for: dicotyledonous plants; universal model Advantages: small genome (150 mb); small; can be easily transformed |  
|
|
Maize lat. Zea mays L. ssp. mays Chromosome count: 2 x 10 Model for: monocotyledonous plants; flower development Advantages: large flowers and inflorescences; important crop plant | 
|
|
Snapdragon lat. Antirrhinum Chromosome count: 2 x 8 Model for: flower development Advantages: large, bilaterally symmetric flowers |  Antirrhinum majus |
|
Petunia lat. Petunia hybrida Chromosome count: 2 x 7 Model for: Solanaceae Advantages: can be planted narrowly; high seed production; closely related to potato, tomato and tobacco | 
|
|
Physcomitrella patens lat. Physcomitrella patens Model for: mosses Advantages: Comparison of vascular plants and mosses; efficient homologous recombination; can be used to produce proteins in bioreactors |  Physcomitrella patens |
Animals |  Plants |
|
Mouse lat. Mus musculus Chromosome count: 2 x 20 Model for: mammals; humans Advantages: short generation time; small; many knockout versions available | 
|
|
Zebrafish lat. Danio rerio Chromosome count: 2 x 25 Model for: fish Advantages: short generation time; lays many translucent eggs; small; undemanding | 
|
|
Fruit fly lat. Drosophila melanogaster Chromosome count: 2 x 4 Model for: insects; pattern formation Advantages: short generation time; can be bread easily and cheaply; only 4 chromosome pairs; active transposons | 
|
|
C. elegans lat. Caenorhabditis elegans Chromosome count: 2 x 6 Model for: worms; clearly determined differentiation Advantages: short generation time; can be bred in lagge numbers like a bacterium; can be kept frozen; exactly determined cell divisions and differentiation; uses apoptosis as an important part of development | 
|
|
African clawed frog lat. Xenopus laevis Chromosome count: 4 x 18 Model for: amphibians; embryo development Advantages: translucent egg; huge embryo that can be manipulated easily | 
|
|
Chick lat. Gallus gallus domesticus Chromosome count: 2 x 38 Model for: birds; embryonal development Advantages: fetal development in the egg may be observed easily; of economic importance | 
|
