Fruit flies: Summer pests or scientific marvel?

Fly-swatting season is here. No sooner will you place your fresh strawberries on the kitchen counter than will the first fruit fly arrive. It won't take long for a platoon of Drosophila buddies to be hovering about the spoils.

Taste sensors keep proteins in order in flies

A set of genes that promote sweet taste sensation is also crucial for protein management during fly development, according to a new study by Eugenia Piddini of the University of Bristol, United Kingdom, and colleagues, publishing ...

Metabolic protein explains how flies choose 'healthy' food

Many animals, including humans, have a preference for nutrient-balanced diets. Among all essential nutrients, multicellular organisms need to consume the building blocks of proteins, called amino acids, in order to build ...

'Supergene' wreaks havoc in a genome

The human genome is littered with "selfish genetic elements," which do not seem to benefit their hosts, but instead seek only to propagate themselves.

'Soft' CRISPR may offer a new fix for genetic defects

Curing debilitating genetic diseases is one of the great challenges of modern medicine. During the past decade, development of CRISPR technologies and advancements in genetics research brought new hope for patients and their ...

How fruit flies lay off the extra salty snacks

Fruit flies are known for their sweet tooth, but new research also indicates they may offer hints to how animals sense—and avoid—high concentrations of salt.

The cell's skeleton in motion

To many of us, cells are the building blocks of life, akin to bricks or Legos. But to biologist Regan Moore, a former Ph.D. student in Dan Kiehart's lab at Duke, cells are so much more: they're busy construction sites, machinery ...

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