July 3, 2014

Fruit Fly Immunity Fails with Fungus After (Space) Flight



Before you swat away the next fruit fly, consider instead just how similar its biological complexities are to our own. In a study published in PLOS ONE, researchers led by Deborah Kimbrell, Ph.D., at the University of California, Davis (UC Davis) and their collaborators, studied how microorganisms may alter fruit flies’ immunity in space and in hypergravity, or increased gravity. The article is titled “Toll Mediated Infection Response Is Altered by Gravity and Spaceflight in Drosophila.”