Mapping Heart Disease

Though heart disease is a major cause of disability and death, very little is understood about its genetic underpinnings. Recently, an international team of investigators at the Institute of Molecular Biotechnology of the Austrian Academy of Sciences (IMBA), Sanford-Burnham Medical Research Institute (Sanford-Burnham) and other organizations shed new light on the subject. Studying Drosophila (fruit flies), the team investigated 7061 genes and built a detailed map that shows how a portion of these genes contribute to heart function and disease. Importantly, the researchers identified many genes that had not previously been associated with heart disease. The research is being published as the cover story in the April 2 issue of Cell.

Tiny fruit fly could offer big clues in fight against obesity

The tiny tongue of a fruit fly could provide big answers to questions about human eating habits, possibly even leading to new ways to treat obesity, according to a study from a team of Texas A&M University researchers. They examined the taste organs on Drosophila's proboscis (tongue), which triggers the minute fruit fly's desire to eat or not to eat. They found that several factors, especially the creature's internal daily clock, determine feeding behaviors - and these same taste sensitivities very likely apply to humans. "The 'clock' that influences this decision to eat or not to eat is found inside the taste sensing cells, which send a signal to eat." "Once this signal is sent, the brain then tells the fly to eat or not, but all of this seems to depend on the time of day. These clocks have a very direct link to its eating habits." Drosophila, commonly called fruit flies and smaller than a grain of rice, are found worldwide and there about 1,500 species. Their work is published in the new issue of the journal Current Biology

Fruit fly research may lead to better understanding of human heart disease

Researchers at the Burnham Institute for Medical Research, California, have shown in both fruit flies and humans that genes involved in embryonic heart development are also integral to adult heart function. The study, led by Rolf Bodmer, Ph.D., was published in Proceedings of National Academy of Sciences