A small molecule in animals that was thought to have no impact is now thought to control precise movements in animals

Scientists at the University of Sussex working with fruit flies have found that the flies could not flip themselves upright after being placed upside down when changes were done to its miRNAs. MiRNAs affect the formation of the nervous system, but may now also be linked to controlling specific movements. Researchers originally tried switching off individual microRNA molecules to investigate the effects it had on the nervous system when they found out that flies could not sit themselves upright after being placed upside down. Scientists are now wondering what different miRNAs affect different movements. Scientists hope to use this information to understand how nervous system disorders lead to the loss of movement in humans.

This article is interesting because the scientists were testing the nervous system and accidentally found out that  molecules encoded in the genome of all animals can have an affect on movement which was otherwise unknown.  Hopefully scientists in the near future can learn more about what miRNA molecules controls what which can lead to a better understanding of nervous system disorders and how to fix or treat them. 

You can find the original article here.