Digital three-dimensional models of Drosophila development.

Digital models of organs, cells and subcellular structures have become important tools in biological and medical research. Reaching far beyond their traditional widespread use as didactic tools, computer-generated models serve as electronic atlases to identify specific elements in complex patterns, and as analytical tools that reveal relationships between such pattern elements that would remain obscure in two-dimensional sections. Digital models also offer the unique opportunity to store and display gene-expression patterns, and pilot studies have been made in several genetic model organisms, including mouse, Drosophila and Caenorhabditis elegans, to construct digital graphic databases intended as repositories for gene-expression data. Copyright 2004 Elsevier Ltd.