With Nusslein-Volhard at Heidelberg, Wieschaus examined mutations in
40,000 fruit fly families, discovering that about 5,000 of the fly's
20,000 genes are important to embryonic development and about 140 are
essential. Their research, published in the English scientific journal
Nature in 1980, generated the widely accepted model that three sets
of genes control subdivision in the developing embryo: gap genes, a
blueprint for general body development; pair-rule genes, which subdivide
these general regions into body segments; and segment-polarity genes,
which affect specific structures within these segments. Their work helped
scientists to better understand congenital mutations in other animals,
including humans.
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