Mexican fruit flies (Anastrepha ludens) on a grapefruit.AGRICULTURAL RESEARCH SERVICE, JACK DYKINGA
Fruit flies learn and remember a preference for lower-calorie typical lab nutrition over high-calorie food thanks to genes expressed in their brains. Yet when they are faced with prolonged exposure to just the high-calorie option, their metabolic memories are lost, according to a study published this week (April 7) in Nature Communications.
Researchers from the Albert Einstein College of Medicine in New York City wanted to probe the role of learning and memory in the brain’s maintenance of metabolic balance throughout the body. To do so, the scientists trained Drosophila to associate particular smells with either normal food or a version with four times the amount of sorbitol, an artificial sweetener, which upped the calorie content. At first, the flies did not appear to prefer ...
