Disgusting, annoying or beneficial? What would you call these pestering fruit flies that don’t miss an opportunity to sit on your favourite cut fruit or visit your kitchen a few times? Whatever you call them, did you know we owe a great deal of our knowledge on evolution to these pesky flies? Ever wondered what’s the lifestyle of Drosophila melanogaster, as they are scientifically called, within the four walls of a laboratory where they are experimented upon? Here is a sneak peek.

Researchers from two Spanish institutes—the University of Barcelona and the Barcelona Institute of Science and Technology, and CCMB in Hyderabad, have identified some genes and regulatory elements involved in damage-response of the Drosophila regeneration process.

Researchers from IISER Pune, have reported that environment and evolution can influence the ‘dispersal syndrome’ in fruit flies. This study was supported by the DST, Government of India.

Scientists from the National Centre for Biological Sciences, Bangalore study what neurons are involved in the identification of bitter substances by fruit flies.

In a recent study, scientists from the Indian Institutes of Science Education and Research (IISER), Pune, have identified factors that affect the dispersal patterns of fruit flies (Drosophila melanogaster).

The intricate working of human cells has been a fascinating subject and every now and then we have a new research throwing light on how cells and their constituents help form what we know as ‘life’. Now, a new study has explored the organization and function of mitochondria, a cell organelle responsible for providing the cells with energy that they need,  in the context of early embryonic development. The researchers have shown how mitochondria move about in the cells using the cytoskeleton and help in formation of different cells from the blastoderm.

The theory of evolution has long been an interesting subject for scientists around the world, ever since Darwin’s proposal. Many new findings have shaped our understanding of evolution and some have changed what we knew thus far. Now a new study by scientists on fruitflies might further change how we have understood the importance of ‘trade-offs’ in evolution. The study has discovered that fruitflies develop immunity to a type of bacteria over a few generations without losing any other desirable trait, prompting scientists to believe that they have obtained immunity for free, a concept that was always associated with trade-offs.