An ideal organism needs to have a short life span or maturity. A large number of offspring can be easily manipulated genetically and easy to grow and maintain.
Firstly, such an organism needs to mature quickly in order to be able to see the long-term effects of its genome, which implies a shorter life cycle is desired.
Secondly, such an organism needs to be able to produce a large number of offspring in order to see the rate and distribution of genetic elements within a fairly large population.
Thirdly, an ideal organism’s genome needs to be well-understood and easily manipulated in order to alter and change the genetic material as needed.
Fourthly, such an organism needs to be easy to grow and maintain, which means that it requires little investment in terms of food and resources.