Genetic control of development

The Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine 1995 was awarded jointly to Edward B. Lewis, Christiane Nüsslein-Volhard and Eric F. Wieschaus "for their discoveries concerning the genetic control of early embryonic development." The experimental object in their work was the fruit fly (Drosophila melanogaster). Thanks to their work, 15 genes forming the axes and segments of the Drosophila body were identified and classified, homeosis genes regulating the development of larval segments in a certain part of the body were found, and their collinearity in time and space was revealed.