The Lowly Fruit Fly Takes a Giant Swat!

by Syam Anand

Who would imagine that scientists are mindlessly wasting taxpayer dollars on stupid fruit flies? That too, not the money that came through the NIH after peer review, but from ear marks- those wasteful “pork-barrel” projects that help politicians channel money for projects in their pet constituencies! Is it not a shame that this has been going on behind our backs until the most popular governor in USA decided to bring out this activity into the open in her first major policy speech?

During her first major policy speech, she made fun of the lowly fruit fly and the researchers who are after it. Amazingly, she even managed to garner a few laughs from the audience.

Watch the portion of the speech for yourself here.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HCXqKEs68Xk

Poor fruit flies! Also, those poor souls of scientists who worked and continue to work on them!

Outrageously ignorant- that is how I would summarize the fruit fly remarks.

This is what happens if you don’t believe in science. This is exactly what happens if you don’t understand how science works. This is what happens if you don’t know that “WHAT IS TRUE FOR E. COLI IS ALSO TRUE FOR THE ELEPHANT”. This is what happens if you don’t understand evolution (whether you believe in it or not and to what scale). The list is long. But since it starts sounding personal, I will get back to the point.

The point is lowly organisms such as fruit flies have contributed more than what one can wish for when compared to studying “real patients”. Who could imagine that another low-life, in fact an even better description would be a “life-less thing” such as the T4 bacteriophage- a virus that infects E. coli- would lay the foundations of modern molecular biology and genetics? The answer is- those scientists who thought ahead of their time and understood the potential of systematically understanding how small “things” work in order to understand how big things also work. This is based on something called the universality of rules (with some exceptions for the sake of argument). Even laymen will get it, provided they keep their eyes and ears open. This is as simple as the laws of motion being the same in physics irrespective of what model you are using for your studies.

The fact is that studying fruit flies is exactly the way to accelerate research to understand how brain functions. I don’t know if fruit flies have a soul! But I sure know they have brains, even though they are tiny! In fruit flies, you can knock-out (functionally or physically remove) individual genes and proteins and ask questions about how it affects brain or any other bodily functions. And the fly would not complain, right? You can’t imagine doing that with so much convenience and economy in humans (even the dumbest person would agree). In fact, fruit fly research has identified components that affect not just brain function, but also developmental and genetics defects, thus helping scientists to extend these observations to other model systems and human beings.

FYI GOVERNOR: “About 75% of known human disease genes have a recognizable match in the genetic code of fruit flies (Reiter et al (2001) Genome Research: 11(6):1114-25), and 50% of fly protein sequences have mammalian analogues. An online database called Homophila is available to search for human disease gene homologues in flies and vice versa. Drosophila is being used as a genetic model for several human diseases including the neurodegenerative disorders Parkinson’s, Huntington’s, spinocerebellar ataxia and Alzheimer’s disease. The fly is also being used to study mechanisms underlying aging and oxidative stress, immunity,diabetes, and cancer, as well as drug abuse.”- CITED FROM WIKIPEDIA!

At this rate, the governor would argue to stop supporting research using mouse or guinea pig models, or the coveted Danio rerio (zebra fish), which is again another low-life not worthy of studying. Check out the following video, which is an example to understand how studying these low-lives help improve human health.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZItgyfuxsfM

There are similar countless examples in scientific literature.

If it is really true that a Senator or Congressman really used an earmark for funding fruit fly research, I congratulate that person for showing the courage to invest money for the future of public good. Flexibility is good, especially for funding science as there are too many ideas out there, which you cant clearly bet on, unless you give it a chance. That is what makes this country strong and a leader in fundamental and applied science. Hope better sense prevails in people. I hope laymen and CIPs (curious and interested people) educate themselves adequately from reliable sources before falling prey to misinformation campaigns about certain scientific investigations.

Long live T4 phages, fruit flies, zebra fishes, darwin’s finches and all low-lives!

Syam Anand

Pittsburgh, USA