Brain difference discovered in gay fruit flies

[emad]

Gay flies lose their nerve
Brain difference linked to same-sex courtship behaviours in insects.
Roxanne Khamsi



Researchers have finally pinned down a physical difference between male flies that are engineered to behave homosexually and those that are not: the tweaked variety is missing a small cluster of nerve cells in the brain.

Genetically altered flies that are designed to court members of their own sex, or no one at all, have made headlines in recent months (see 'Fruitflies tap in to their gay side '). But no one knew exactly what those genes were doing, or how the flies differed physically from heterosexual ones. Now Japanese researchers have pinpointed one difference in the brain.

Scientists caution that fly mating behaviour is very different from that of humans, as are our brains, so these results cannot be extrapolated to people. "No homologue of the fruitless gene is found in mammals and humans," points out Ken-Ichi Kimura of the Hokkaido University of Education in Iwamizawa, Japan.

But such work does help researchers to work out the complex genetic and environmental factors that help animals to choose their mates. "This finding will provide insight for understanding how a sexual behaviour is constructed in the circuitry of the brain through a function of single gene," adds Kimura.

http://www.nature.com/news/2005/051107/full/051107-8.html

[William769]

1. It would have to be fruit flies, wouldn't it?

[Ian David]

2. Gay Penguin / Gay Fruit Fly 2008!

[moggie]

3. Fascinating!

Can we get a whole load of these gay flies and release them in Pat Robertson's house?

But no one knew exactly what those genes were doing, or how the flies differed physically from heterosexual ones.

If you look real close, you'll see they're better groomed. Coming soon: Queer eye for the straight fly.