Fruit flies that expect sex, but get none, live shorter lives: study – CTV News

They may be pesky, but the common fruit fly is yet again giving us insight into what factors can potentially affect human health and lifespan.

And this time, it’s all about sex.

A new study out of the University of Michigan shows that male fruit flies that expected sex – but didn’t get it – experienced negative health effects and aged faster.

Researchers used sensory manipulation to give male fruit flies the perception that they were in a sexually-rich environment. This was achieved by exposing the male fruit flies to other males that were genetically engineered to produce female pheromones. Unable to mate, but certainly expecting to, the flies experienced more stress and rapid decrease in both fat stores and resistance to starvation. Ultimately, they lived shorter lives than those who were able to mate.

In fact, the researchers found the negative effects on health and aging were partially reversed in male flies that were able to mate, the study concluded.

It’s not surprising that researchers at the University of Michigan turned to fruit flies for their research: For the last century, fruit flies have been one of the go-to species when attempting to shed experimental light on the mysteries of human genetics. The reason is simple: fruit flies share 75 per cent of the genes that cause disease in humans, according to most experts who use the tiny fly in their research.

Even NASA makes extensive use of the fruit fly it calls a “tiny biomedical research model that reveals the basis for health in many animals including humans.”

NASA sent fruit flies into space for 13 days in 2006 to study the impact of spaceflight on immune function. That study showed spaceflight alters immune responses in fruit flies the same way it did for astronauts. The findings were also used to help researchers develop tools to keep astronauts healthy during long space missions.

Researchers at the University of Dayton are using fruit flies to try to better understand how birth defects happen in eyes, identifying a network of tumour suppressant genes in the fly that they hope will shed light on how to stop the growth of cancer cells.

A researcher at Rutgers University is using fruit flies to study a cell signaling pathway that causes cancer when it begins receiving the wrong type of information.

Scientists at the University of Michigan say their study on the sexual activity of fruit flies will provide insight into the relationship between sensory perception and long-term health and lifespan. And while they aren’t rushing to conclude that the exact same relationship exists in humans, they say the study provides direct evidence that aging and physiology are influenced by how the brain processes expectations and rewards.