The fly on the right has had its insulin genetically altered.
Recently it has been discovered that insulin plays a very similar role in the cells of fruit flies as it does to humans. This discovery was extremely helpful to the field of diabetes research because it means research has a very easy model to work with. Fruit flies are very easy and quick to breed an have a genome that is easy for scientists to examine and study. Scientists and researchers can now try out many ideas easily on the path the curing diabetes. This is also good news for the mammals who have been used in experiments since it is predicted that more focus will be on the fruit flies as test subjects. Fruit flies actually withstand the genetic alterations better than mammals. Other animals used for diabetes experiments tend to die before experimenters can finish testing on them.
The flies that have their insulin-like genes disabled express similar symptoms as diabetic humans. Since fruit flies are vastly different from human, most scientists are skeptical of the experiments translating to humans but the possibilities are still helpful.
After using fruit flies in Genetics Lab it is easy to see that they are a very simple animals to use for genetics experiments. I understand why scientists would be skeptical however because fruit flies are so far from humans in many ways. As an animal lover, it is nice to see that less rats, mice and rabbits will be experimented on for this field of study.
Article source: http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2013/11/131106202235.htm
Fruit flies are amazing little creatures. We know from lab that they are extremely easy to handle and work with. I agree with you that it is easy to see why scientists choose to conduct genetic research on them. Fruit flies have been used in genetic research for many years and are considered as one of the few model genetic organisms. Research on fruit flies has yielded many great results and it all started with Thomas Hunt Morgan in the early twentieth century. It is no surprise to me that fruit flies can be used in diabetes research and fruit flies will definitely provide researchers with an easy model to work with. Diabetes is a very common and unfortunate disease for people to become diagnosed with. My grandma and my cousin both have diabetes. This causes them to be more careful with their food choices and I have seen the toll that the symptoms of diabetes take on them. Hopefully, our fruit fly friends will be beneficial for the scientists and help them become successful in finding a cure for diabetes.
ReplyDeleteThis is an amazing experiment. Even more, its just great that they can use fruit flies to do this- they are truly easy to manipulate. I too have a lot of family members who suffer with diabetes and it is so upsetting to see all the complications that come with it. I, for one, would be absolutely elated if these scientist made good headway with this study.
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