You and the fruit fly
By Ruth SoRelle, M.P.H.
During the recent presidential campaign, researchers around the world became alarmed and a bit indignant when Gov. Sarah Palin, in the running for vice president of the United States, directed her scorn at fruit fly research. It turns out that her concern was about French research directed against a fruit fly pest – an important concern to agriculture – but it reminded many in the research community that there are still people in the public who are unaware of important factors that lead to new understanding of biology and disease and new treatments for diseases that plague mankind.
Consider fruit flies – or Drosophila melanogaster as they are more properly known. It is not an accident that their genome was sequenced before that of humans – and that the Human Genome Sequencing Center at Baylor College of Medicine was part of that effort.
In laboratories across the College, fruit flies play an important role in understanding:
- Retinal development – as in the laboratory of Graeme Mardon, Ph.D., professor of molecular and human genetics, neuroscience, ophthalmology and pathology;
- Proteins that when over- or under-expressed can trigger neurological diseases – as in the laboratory of Juan Botas, Ph.D.;
- The development of the nervous system and genetic and molecular analysis of the release of neutotransmitters in the laboratory of Hugo J. Bellen, D.V.M., Ph.D.;
- Noncoding RNAs and the structure of chromatin – the combination of DNA and proteins that makes up chromosomes in the laboratory of Richard Kelley, Ph.D.;
- Aging and age-related diseases that have equivalents in the fruit fly in the laboratory of Scott D. Pletcher;
- Eye development and how it is controlled genetically in the laboratory of Kwang-Wook Choi, Ph.D.;
- Learning and memory process in the laboratory of Ronald Davis, Ph.D.;
- Genetic models of mitrochondrial diseases in the laboratory of Brett H. Graham, M.D., Ph.D.
This research has already proved fruitful in understanding memory, the development of important sensory organs, how nerve cells interact and a variety of diseases, including Lou Gehrig's, Rett Syndrome (an autism spectrum disorder) and spinocerebellar ataxia 1. Biologically, the fruit fly is an important model to help us understand ourselves.
Sometimes, it takes a politician to remind us what is important.
