University of Queensland's School of Biological Sciences associate professor Steve Chenoweth said that his study showed that male harassment of female fruit flies inhibits the ability of the female species to adapt to new environmental conditions, Science Daily reports.

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He said, "We found that sexually attractive females were overcome by male suitors. Superior genes that female fruit flies have allow them to lay more eggs, which is why male suitors were so attractive that female fruit flies spent most of their time refusing male suitors rather that laying eggs."

Chenoweth then went on to say, "And the end result, these supposed to be 'superior' genes could not be passed to the next generation."

These genes increased the egg-laying ability of female fruit flies, while at the same time boosting the sexual attractiveness of males to a level that they wouldn't leave the females alone.

The researchers used 13 generations of different group of flies and let them adapt to a new environment for the study. They managed the number of mates that males and females had in each group, regulating the potential harassment rate.

At the end of their experiment, researchers sequenced the genomes of the flies and found a number that became more common when harassment was not allowed, but these same genes became rare when male harassment was allowed to occur as usual. 

Increasing male attention will held the population back and stop the fruit flies from adapting to new environments.

Professor Chenoweth said that the study's result was quite significant, adding, "We have known for some time of these harmful interactions between males and females."

He added, "However, we hadn't realised there may be a large number of genes fueling the interactions, or that these types of genes hamper a species' ability to adapt to new conditions." 

Another study found that fruit flies can tell and sense the time of the day. According to HNGN, earlier studies have found that mice and honeybees can identify a particular time of the day. Researchers at Rudolf Virchow Center in Germany set out to determine whether this behavior is applicable on smaller species like fruit flies.

The research team exposed the hungry fruit flies into two different scents with sugar for two days. The flies were divided into two groups, the morning group and afternoon group. On the third day of their experiment, they tested which scent will the flies choose. The experiment showed that the flies exposed in the morning scent chose the sugar in the morning, while the flies exposed in the afternoon scent chose the sugar in the afternoon.

Thus, the findings suggest that fruit flies know the difference between the morning and afternoon and that they can tell the time of the day.

The researchers believe that small animals, like fruit flies, rely on the light and dark cycle. They observed that when they kept the lights on, the fruit flies weren't able to differentiate morning from afternoon.

Martin Heisenberg, of Rudolf Virchow Center in Germany, said, "If even the fly, with its miniature brain, has the sense of time, most animals may have it."

Meanwhile, UCL-led study has found that adult fruit flies that are provided with a cancer drug can live up to 12 percent longer than the average life span of the species. The drug targets a specific cellular process that occurs in animals, including humans, delaying the onset of age-related deaths and altering the aging process, HealthCanal has learned.

The study, published in the journal Cell and funded by the Max Planck Society and Wellcome Trust, noted that for the first time, a small molecule drug, which limits the effects of a protein called Ras, has the capacity to delay the aging process in animals. The treated fruit flies outlived the control group by staying healthier for longer. 

Co-author Dr. Nazif Alic, of UCL Institute of Healthy Ageing, said, "Our aim is to understand the mechanisms of ageing and alter the processes that lead to loss of function and to disease. We studied this molecular pathway in flies because they are reasonably complex and yet age more quickly than mammals. We were able to extend their lifespan both genetically and by using a cancer drug to target the Ras pathway, which provides us with the first evidence for the anti-ageing potential of drugs developed to dampen this pathway."

Trametinib was the drug that's typically used to treat skin cancer and was chosen for the study because of it's ability to inhibit Ras signalling as part of the 'Ras-Erk_ETS' cell pathway.

Though death remains inevitable, we now have evidence to prove that it is possible to develop pharmacological treatments for a longer life. 

TagsFruit Fly, Science, Study