Tag : Examines

Washington: Lead author Carolyn Elya, a postdoctoral researcher in the Department of Organismic and Evolutionary Biology at Harvard, describes the molecular and cellular mechanisms underlying the ability of the parasitic fungus Entomophthora muscae (E. muscae) to influence the behaviour of fruit flies in a new study published in eLife. In a paper that was published in eLife in 2018, Elya provided the first description of the altered behaviour, known as summiting. Elya, a doctoral student at the University of California (UC) Berkeley, used rotting fruit as bait to catch wild fruit flies as she researched the bacteria that fruit flies carry. When she later checked to see if she had managed to catch any, she discovered zombie flies with an intriguing stance and an abdomen banding pattern. Elya was able to confirm the hypothesised cause, E. muscae, through the extraction and sequencing of DNA. Summiting occurs at sunset when the infected flies climb to an elevated location and extend their proboscises to the surface. A sticky droplet that emerges from the proboscis adheres the fly to the surface right before the wings raise up and away from the body and the flies die. "The climbing is very important as it positions the fly in an advantageous location for the fungus to spread to the most possible hosts," says Elya. "The fungus jumps to the new host by forming very specialized and temporary structures that burst through the fly's skin and shoots spores into the environment that are only good for a handful of hours. It's a fleeting process, so an advantageous position is everything to survival." While at UC Berkeley, Elya developed a laboratory model she refers to as the Entomophthora muscae-Drosophila melanogaster 'zombie fly' system using t ...