Popular genomes
Caenorhabditis elegans
WBcel235
Anopheles gambiae
AgamP3
Drosophila melanogaster
BDGP5
Apis mellifera
Amel_2.0
Strongylocentrotus purpuratus
Spur2.5
Daphnia pulex
Dappu1
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Megaselia scalaris is a scuttle fly of the Phoridae family, also known as the coffin fly or humpbacked fly. Originally from warm climates, the species is synanthropic and is now found near human habitations worldwide. These tiny flies are omnivorous in the broadest sense of the term, eating almost anything, dead or alive, from bacteria to mammals; and even manage to survive on just blue paint or boot polish [1]. The name 'coffin fly' derives from their ability to get through tiny cracks in coffins in order to feed on the corpse, and forensic evidence based on the presence of M. scalaris can be used to infer a postmortem interval (if sufficient precautions are taken - see discussion in [1]).
Phylogenetically, M. scalaris lies between mosquitoes and fruitflies [2], and thus may be useful in comparative studies. This species also has potential as a model organism, because it is amenable to manipulation in a laboratory, and has different neurological and physiological properties to Drosophila melanogaster; it may be particularly suited to studying mechanisms of sex determination [3].
Picture credit (Creative Commons BY 3.0): Charles Schurch Lewallen 2005
- Natural history of the scuttle fly, Megaselia scalaris. Annual Review of Entomology. 2008. 53(1):39-60
- Episodic radiations in the fly tree of life. PNAS. 2011. 108:5690–5
- New Y chromosomes and early stages of sex chromosome differentiation: sex determination in Megaselia. Journal of Genetics. 2010. 89(3):307-13
What's new in Release 18 (April 2013)
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- New genomes
- Brugia malayi (WormBase version WS236)
- Loa loa (Broad version 3)
- Megaselia scalaris
- Strigamia maritima
- Updated genomes
- Caenorhabditis elegans (WormBase version WBcel235)
- Schistosoma mansoni (WTSI April 2012)
- Updated data
- Nematode whole genome alignments
- Protein domain predictions (InterPro) for all species
- Peptide comparative genomics
- BioMart
Future Releases
Release 19 of Ensembl Genomes is scheduled for 2nd July 2013. Detailed notes for this can be found here.