The spindily, little fruit fly, Drosophila Melanogaster, has a brain the size of a pinpoint, but it may be the most important creature in the world at least as far as genetics is concerned.
Drosophila leads a pretty boring life at first glance – it’s got a penchant for lazy floating flight and general hanging about. But biologists have studied Drosophila for nearly two hundred years, and the deeper they look, the more interesting Drosophila becomes.
Turns out, these little pin-headed flies have their own courting ceremonies, sense of time, and ability to learn – and geneticists have been able to link all of those behaviors to particular genes.
Those linkages have a lot to say about the nature versus nurture debate. That may sound like a stretch, but consider this: the gene that governs Drosophila’s internal clock is at work in everything from pond scum to people.
A fly’s eye view on genetics, in this hour.
(Hosted by Christopher Lydon)
Guests:
Jonathan Weiner, author of Time, Love, Memory : A Great Biologist and His Quest for the Origins of Behavior.