Drunk fruit flies may provide alcoholism cure

October 21st, 2009 WASHINGTON - Adult fruit flies, which were happy in their youth, tend to choose a habitat similar to ones they were born in, according to new study. Led by Judy Stamps from the University of California at Davis, the study provides new insight into how animals choose places to live and raise their young.

October 16th, 2009 WASHINGTON - The recent discovery of a spotted wing fruit fly- Drosophila suzukii-in a sample of Willamette Valley wine grapes in Oregon prompted reports of its occurrence in a variety of fresh fruits, including blueberries, peaches, raspberries, strawberries, blackberries, plums - and now in grapes, according to a study. Amy Dreves, a research entomologist at Oregon State University, has said that new reports of its occurrence have been confirmed almost every week since OSU researchers first identified the fly in a sample of Oregon blueberries in August.

October 15th, 2009 LONDON - Absence of certain pheromones turn fruit flies into sexy Marilyn Monroes, irresistible to males not only from its own but other species as well, reveals a new study. In the University of Toronto Mississauga laboratory, Professor Joel Levine's team genetically tweaked fruit flies so that they didn't produce certain pheromones, called cuticular hydrocarbon pheromones.

September 30th, 2009 WASHINGTON - After sex, female fruit flies ditch the usual siesta in favour of extra foraging and searching for places to lay her eggs, a new study has found. The study showed that it is all down to a chemical or 'sex peptide' produced by male fruit flies.

September 23rd, 2009 WASHINGTON - Scientists have come up with new ways to stop by-products from the air we breathe from harming our muscles. Atanu Duttaroy, associate professor of biology at Howard University in Washington, D.C., and colleagues have shown how about 3 percent of the air we breathe gets converted into harmful superoxides, which ultimately harm our muscles.

September 17th, 2009 WASHINGTON - Like humans, novice fruit flies tend to learn from their more experienced counterparts i.e. mated fruit flies, say researchers.

August 27th, 2009 LONDON - In a lab study on fruit flies, entomologists led by an Indian origin scientist at the University of California, Riverside, have discovered a novel class of compounds that could help in developing inexpensive and safe mosquito repellents for combating West Nile virus and other deadly tropical diseases. Under stress, fruit flies emit carbon dioxide (CO2) that serves as a warning to other fruit flies that danger or predators could be nearby.

August 22nd, 2009 WASHINGTON - A new study has shown that female fruit flies prefer keeping sex short and sweet because they get a reproductive boost from shorter intercourse. Since males like sex to last longer, a fight ensues.

August 6th, 2009 WASHINGTON - A new study raises the possibility that flies and other insects that encounter nanomaterial "hot spots," or spills, near manufacturing facilities in the future could pick up and transport nanoparticles on their bodies, transferring the particles to other flies or habitats in the environment. The study, by David Rand and Robert Hurt and colleagues, notes that emergence of a nanotechnology industry is raising concerns about the potential adverse health and environmental effects of nanoparticles.

July 17th, 2009 WASHINGTON - Scientists at the Harvard Medical School have discovered a previously unidentified pheromone that contributes to the anti-aphrodisiac effects observed in female fruit flies after copulation. In study, which has been published in Current Biology, Harvard Medical School (HMS) researchers, along with German colleagues, report on a newly discovered pheromone produced by male fruit flies.

July 17th, 2009 WASHINGTON - A chemical produced by male fruit flies and transferred to females during mating enables the female to tell other males to buzz off. Harvard Medical School (HMS) researchers, along with German colleagues, discovered the chemical pheromone, which they named CH503.

July 14th, 2009 WASHINGTON - In a study on fruit flies, scientists have debunked the belief that fasting extends life spans in various organisms, including humans, when they suffer infection. In their study, researchers at Stanford University School of Medicine wanted to see if reduced caloric intake also helps creatures cope with infection.

June 11th, 2009 WASHINGTON - Scientists have identified a set of genes that affect aggression in the fruit fly Drosophila melanogaster. By studying male flies from a large panel of lines, which each carry a mutation in a single gene but are otherwise genetically identical, researchers identified particularly angry and particularly placid insects, uncovering 59 mutations in 57 genes that affect aggressive behaviour.

March 13th, 2009 WASHINGTON - Scientists at Caltech University, US, have discovered that fruit flies have evolved a specialized population of neurons in their antennae that let them know not only when the wind is blowing, but also the direction from which it is coming. The behavior of fruit flies in the face of a stiff breeze is remarkable in and of itself, according to David J.

January 22nd, 2009 WASHINGTON - Scientists have identified a cellular mechanism in mutated 'Indy' fruit flies that could help prolong life by cutting down the output of free radicals. The finding by Stephen Helfand and Nicola Neretti of Brown University and others adds another piece to the puzzle that Helfand, a professor of biology first discovered in 2000.