Fruit fly (Drosophila melanogaster) I really like fermented foods. Technically, it is the yeast they crave, produced by delicious rotten fruits, but can consume a considerable amount of ethanol as a result of its fruity diet. Yes, fruit fly has an ultra-fast metabolism, and it’s better to burn alcohol, but you can still get drunk and get drunk.
Again, obviously adding alcohol to their food increases the production of sex pheromones in male fruit fly, according to a new paper published in the journal Science Advances. This makes it more attractive than females of the species.
“We show a direct and positive effect of alcohol consumption on male fly mating success.” Co-author Ian Keesy said University of Nebraska, Lincoln. “This effect is caused by the fact that alcohol, especially methanol, increases the production of sex pheromones. This makes alcoholic men more attractive to women, and the success of drunk men with women can be questionable.”
Fruit fly is the flagship horse in modern genetic research, used to study everything from cancer to sleep disorders. They share so many genes with humans that they create great model systems. Furthermore, it is inexpensive and easy to breed, and can be easily genetically altered. Years ago, I had the privilege of visiting Ulrique Hevarein, a behavioral geneticist in the University of California and San Francisco. (Heberlein is currently the director of science program and director of the laboratory at Howard Hughes Medical Institute’s Janelia Farm Research Campus. )
