Studying the human brain is difficult because of its vast and intricate network of neural connections. The fruit fly offers a simpler but similar model that researchers can more easily map.
A microbiologist explains the risks to your health of a fly landing in your chilled glass of sauvignon blanc.
In the heat of the summer, time can sometimes appear like it’s melting away. However, our body clock is there to keep track of the hours gone by.
Joseph Jacobs, Shutterstock
A failed experiment led the researchers to question their assumptions and realize that, contrary to popular belief, chromosomes interact with and affect genetic expression.
For Drosophila melanogaster, their senses have a significant effect on how quickly they age.
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When fruit flies see other dead fruit flies, their life spans are cut short. Other species also undergo analogous physiological changes when seeing their dead.
New research in fruit flies elucidates how the genes that direct animal body shape work.
Vaclav Hykes/EyeEm via Getty Images
Hox genes make sure all your body parts grow in the right place. Understanding how they work can reveal the process of evolution and lead to potential treatments for congenital birth defects.
Astrocytes: these cells could be part of the key to unlocking the mystery of how brains change their structure.
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Gemma Ware, The Conversation and Daniel Merino, The Conversation
From the archive: new research helps unpick clues about the brain’s ability to change its structure. Listen to The Conversation Weekly podcast.
The colors in this microscope photo of a fruit fly brain show different types of neurons and the cells that surround them in the brain.
Sarah DeGenova Ackerman
Adaptable neurons are tied to learning and memory but also to neurological disorders. By studying fruit flies, researchers found a mechanism that controls neuroplasticity.
Sleeping on the job?
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Chemicals banned in the EU were recently granted an exemption for limited use in the UK.
Colourized scanning electron micrograph of a cell heavily infected with SARS-CoV-2 virus particles.
(The National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases/Flickr)
Fundamental research has informed what we know about coronaviruses up until the pandemic. With possible future outbreaks, continuing and developing this type of work is crucial.
The Mediterranean fruit fly can evolve rapidly to different environmental conditions, this suggests it will be well suited to cope with climate change.
David Suzuki is an environmental activist, broadcaster and globally recognized geneticist.
David Suzuki Foundation
David Suzuki may be best known as an environmental activist and the face of CBC’s ‘The Nature of Things,’ but he’s also a globally recognized scientist.
Biological clocks set the pace for nearly all living things, and Jeffrey Hall, Michael Rosbash and Michael Young – awarded the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine – helped us understand how.
‘The key fourth awardee here is … the little fly,’ Hall said.
Lynn Ketchum
Americans Jeffrey Hall, Michael Rosbash and Michael Young share the 2017 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for work that explained how our cells keep track of time.
A scourge of kitchens everywhere, Drosophila melanogaster — the common fruit fly — stares down the electron microscope that captured its image.
(Shutterstock)
Detecting drier or wetter conditions is crucial for insect survival. We’ve long known they can do this – now researchers have discovered the genetic and neural basis for their humidity-sensing system.
Fruit flies aren’t just a remarkable organism for research. They are also central to a project that aims to provide more at-home research opportunities for African scientists.