Fruit in Biological News

Carbon nanoparticles toxic to adult fruit flies but benign to young

PROVIDENCE, R.I. [Brown University] Carbon nanoparticles are widely used in medicine, electronics, optics, materials science and architecture, but their health and environmental impact is not fully understood. In a series of experiments, researchers at Brown University sought to determine how ...

Warming climate threatens California fruit and nut production

Winter chill, a vital climatic trigger for many tree crops, is likely to decrease by more than 50 percent during this century as global climate warms, making California no longer suitable for growing many fruit and nut crops, according to a team of researchers from the University of California, Da...

Scripps Research scientists observe human neurodegenerative disorder in fruit flies

La Jolla, CA, June 24, 2009 -- A team of scientists from The Scripps Research Institute, Katholeike Universiteit Leuven, and the University of Antwerp, Belgium, among other institutions, has created a genetically modified fruit fly that mimics key features of Charcot-Marie-Tooth disease, a common ...

Sugarcoating fruit fly development

Proteins are the executive agents that carry out all processes in a cell. Their activity is controlled and modified with the help of small chemical tags that can be dynamically added to and removed from the protein. 25 years after its first discovery, researchers at the European Molecular Biology ...

P[acman]-generated fruit fly gene 'library': A new research tool

HOUSTON -- (May 24, 2009) -- Using a specially adapted tool called P[acman], a collaboration of researchers led by Baylor College of Medicine has established a library of clones that cover most of the genome of Drosophila melanogaster (fruit fly) and should speed the pace of genetic research. ...

Drinking 100 percent fruit juice is associated with lower risk of obesity and metabolic syndrome

New Orleans (April 22, 2009) If you enjoy a glass of 100% juice as part of your daily routine, chances are you also have fewer risk factors for several chronic diseases when compared to your non juice-drinking peers. New research presented today at the Experimental Biology (EB) 2009 meeting highl...

Tuning in on cellular communication in the fruit fly

WORCESTER, Mass. In their ongoing study of the processes involved in embryonic development in fruit flies, researchers at WPI's Life Sciences and Bioengineering Center at Gateway Park have identified the function of a protein that sticks out of the embryonic cell membrane like an antenna and pr...

Scientists unlock possible aging secret in genetically altered fruit fly

PROVIDENCE, R.I. [Brown University] Brown University researchers have identified a cellular mechanism that could someday help fight the aging process. The finding by Stephen Helfand and Nicola Neretti and others adds another piece to the puzzle that Helfand, a professor of biology, molecular b...

When it comes to sleep research, fruit flies and people make unlikely bedfellows

You may never hear fruit flies snore, but rest assured that when you're asleep they are too. According to research published in the January 2009 issue of the journal GENETICS ( http://www.genetics.org ), scientists from the University of Missouri-Kansas City have shown that the circadian rhythms...

How eating fruit and vegetables can improve cancer patients' response to chemotherapy

RIVERSIDE, Calif. The leading cause of death in all cancer patients continues to be the resistance of tumor cells to chemotherapy, a form of treatment in which chemicals are used to kill cells. Now a study by UC Riverside biochemists that focuses on cancer cells reports that ingesting apigeni...

Biochemists manipulate fruit flavor enzymes

Would you like a lemony watermelon? How about a strawberry-flavored banana? Biochemists at The University of Texas Medical School at Houston say the day may be coming when scientists will be able to fine tune enzymes responsible for flavors in fruits and vegetables. In addition, it could lead to e...

Evolution of fruit size in tomato

Domesticated tomatoes can be up to 1000 times larger than their wild relatives. How did they get so big? In general, domesticated food plants have larger fruits, heads of grain, tubers, etc, because this is one of the characteristics that early hunter-gatherers chose when foraging for food. In ...

Courtship pattern shaped by emergence of a new gene in fruit flies

When a young gene known as sphinx is inactivated in the common fruit fly, it leads to increased male-male courtship, scientists report in the May 27, 2008, issue of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. High levels of male-male courtship are widespread in many fly species, but no...

New research: Fruit juice consumption not related to overweight in children

Los Angeles, London, New Delhi, and Singapore (April 14, 2008) -- Despite studies that assert otherwise, 100% fruit juice consumption is not related to overweight in children, according to the authors of A Review of the Relationship Between 100% Fruit Juice Consumption and Weight in Children and A...

Scientists decipher fruit tree genome for the first time

This release is available in Spanish . A scientific group of the Universities of Illinois (USA), Georgia (USA), Hawaii (USA) and Nakai (China), among others, have deciphered for the first time fruit genomic sequence, in this case papaya (Carica papaya), according to the cover of the last ...

A new idea for how anti-aging products delay ripening of fruit and wilting of flowers

RIVERSIDE, Calif. When plants encounter ethylene, a gas they also produce naturally as a hormone, the result is softening and ripening in the case of fruit, and wilting and fading in the case of flowers all of which ethylene promotes. To delay these effects, growers spray plants with produc...

CSHL scientists identify a mechanism that helps fruit flies lock-in memories

Synapses are the tiny gaps across which information crosses between nerve cells. Changes in the strength of synaptic connections, called plasticity, play a vital role in both memory formation and learning, and help determine how nerve signals propagate. Assistant professor Josh Dubnau, Ph.D.,...

Like sweets? You're more like a fruit fly than you think...

PHILADELPHIA (March 17, 2008) -- According to researchers at the Monell Center, fruit flies are more like humans in their responses to many sweet tastes than are almost any other species. The diverse range of molecules that humans experience as sweet do not necessarily taste sweet to other sp...

Crop scientists discover gene that controls fruit shape

WOOSTER, Ohio Crop scientists have cloned a gene that controls the shape of tomatoes, a discovery that could help unravel the mystery behind the huge morphological differences among edible fruits and vegetables, as well as provide new insight into mechanisms of plant development. The gene, dub...

Researchers create mathematical model of fruit fly eyes

EVANSTON, Ill. --- Many researchers have tried to create a mathematical model of how cells pack together to form tissue, but most models have many different complicated factors, and no model is universal. Researchers at Northwestern University have now created a functional equation -- using onl...

The precise role of seminal proteins in sustaining post-mating responses in fruit flies

Successful reproduction is critical to pass genes to the next generation. In sexually reproducing organisms, sperm enter the female with seminal proteins that are vital for fertility. In a new study published on Friday, December 14, 2007 in PLoS Genetics, researchers at Cornell University knocked ...

Tiny pest-eating insect fights fruit flies

HARROW, ONTARIO -- Farmers and vineyard owners have a new weapon in their pest management arsenal. A commonly used parasitoid, or parasitic insect that kills its host, has proven to be quite effective in the control of fruit flies in vineyards. These tiny pest-devouring insects are considered to b...

Genome comparison of 12 fruit fly species

Researchers from the UAB Genomics, Bioinformatics and Evolution Group participated in an international research that has resulted in the completion of the genomes of ten new fruit fly species. The study also includes new data on the evolution of the twelve currently known species during the past s...

International team compares 12 fruit fly genomes

Cornell researchers have played a major role in an international scientific team that has compared the complete set of genes of 12 closely related fruit fly species. As well has having implications for human health -- from genetic adaptation to evolving immune systems -- the analysis paves the way...

Ripe fruit preferred

This release is also available in German . Fall, the season of colors: Leaves turn red, yellow, and brown. The disappearance of the color green and the simultaneous appearance of these other colors are also signs of ripening fruit. A team led by Bernhard Krutler at the University of Innsbr...

The reservoir of Marburg virus identified in a species of fruit bat

The Marburg virus, like its fearsome cousin Ebola, belongs to the Filoviridae family. It carries the name of the German town where it was first detected in 1967, after a mysterious epidemic had hit employees of the Behring laboratory. The workers had been contaminated as they took organ samples fr...

Sugary drinks, not fruit juice, may be linked to insulin

BOSTON (Sept. 5, 2007) Steady increases in consumption of sugar-sweetened beverages over the last several decades, as well as rates of Type 2 diabetes mellitus, led nutritional epidemiologists at the Jean Mayer USDA Human Nutrition Research Center on Aging (USDA HNRCA) at Tufts University and col...

Researchers find new taste in fruit flies: carbonated water

That fruit fly hovering over your kitchen counter may be attracted to more than the bananas that are going brown; it may also want a sip of your carbonated water. Fruit flies detect and are attracted to the taste of carbon dioxide dissolved in water, such as water found on rotting fruits containin...

Genetic data promises new future for kiwi fruit

Auckland, New Zealand - Kiwifruit lovers can look forward to new, novel forms of their favourite fruit thanks to the release this week of crucial genetic data which fruit breeders say will help them naturally breed new varieties with increased health properties and exciting colours and flavours. ...

New bacteria test could improve quality of fruit and vegetable juice

Increasingly, consumer products, especially food and beverage products, are being scrutinized for better quality. At the University of Missouri-Columbia, a food science expert has developed a rapid, reliable and efficient technique to ensure fruit and vegetable juice products adhere to federal and ...

Survival of the rarest: Fruit flies shed light on the evolution of behavior

Sometimes, it pays to be rare—think of a one-of-a-kind diamond, a unique Picasso or the switch-hitter on a baseball team. Now, new research suggests that being rare has biological benefits. Professor Marla Sokolowski, a biologist at the University of Toronto Mississauga who in the 1980s discovere...

Do fruit flies have free will?

Free will and true spontaneity exist ?in fruit flies. This is what scientists report in a groundbreaking study in the May 16, 2007 issue of the open-access journal PLoS ONE. "Animals and especially insects are usually seen as complex robots which only respond to external stimuli," says senior aut...

Researchers find link between food odors and lifespan in fruit flies

Researchers hoping to learn why organisms tend to live longer if their intake of calories is restricted have made a startling discovery ?in fruit flies, just the smell of food can have a negative effect on longevity. Scientists have known for decades that restricted dietary intake can increase th...

Bisexual fruit flies show new role for neurochemical

Fruit flies' ability to discern one sex from another may depend on the number of receptors on the surface of nerve cells, and the number of receptors is controlled by levels of a ubiquitous brain chemical, University of Illinois at Chicago researchers have found. Everything from the ability to co...

With fruit fly sex, researchers find mind-body connection

Male fruit flies are smaller and darker than female flies. The hair-like bristles on their forelegs are shorter, thicker. Their sexual equipment, of course, is different, too. "Doublesex" is the gene largely responsible for these body differences. Doublesex, new research shows, is responsible f...

Evolution of Old World fruit flies on three continents mirrors climate change

Fast-warming climate appears to be triggering genetic changes in a species of fruit fly that is native to Europe and was introduced into North and South America about 25 years ago. "This is a clear signal on three different continents that climate change is occurring, and that genetic change i...

First biomarker for human sleepiness identified in fruit flies

Scientists have identified the first biochemical marker linked to sleep loss, an enzyme in saliva known as amylase, which increases in activity when sleep deprivation is prolonged. Researchers hope to make amylase the first of a panel of biomarkers that will aid diagnosis and treatment of sleep d...

Geneticists discover genes that make fruit fly hybrids sterile

While hybrids -- the result of the mating of two different species -- may offer interesting and beneficial traits, they are usually sterile or unable to survive. For example, a mule, the result of the mating of a horse and a donkey, is sterile. Now, Cornell researchers have made the first identif...

Fighting like a girl or boy determined by gene in fruit flies

Fighting like a girl or fighting like a boy is hardwired into fruit fly neurons, according to a study in the Nov. 19 Nature Neuroscience advance online publication by a research team from Harvard Medical School and the Institute of Molecular Pathology in Vienna. The results confirm that a gene know...

Psst! Coffee drinkers: Fruit flies have something to tell you about caffeine

In their hunt for genes and proteins that explain how animals discern bitter from sweet, a team of Johns Hopkins researchers began by testing whether mutant fruit flies prefer eating sugar over sugar laced with caffeine. Using a simple behavioral test, the researchers discovered that a single prot...