Drosophila melanogaster: The story of the little pest and the famed prize:

Drosophila melanogaster: The story of the little pest and the famed prize:

Context:

• Nobel Prize for medicine awarded for insights into internal biological clock.

Introduction:

• The 108th Nobel Prize in physiology or medicine has been awarded to a trio of American scientists for their discoveries on the molecular mechanisms controlling circadian rhythms.
• The prize shared between American scientists Jeffrey C Hall, Michael Rosbash and Michael W Young for work on the internal clock of living organisms

Area of discovery:

• The team identified a gene within fruit flies that controls the creatures’ daily rhythm, known as the “period” gene. This gene encodes a protein within the cell during the night which then degrades during the day.
• The team’s discoveries also helped to explain the mechanism by which light can synchronise the clock.
• The work was important for the basic understanding of life.
• The 2017 Prize underlines the continuing importance of Drosophila in the world of genetics and the Nobel.

Drosophila:

• Drosophila melanogaster is a prolific breeder and has a short generation time, and that its genome has just four pairs of chromosomes.

Why do scientists investigate flies?

• After the genome was sequenced in 2000, it was found that an astounding 60% of fruit fly genes are also present in humans in a similar form.
• Germany’s Max Planck Society says that “around 75% of the genes which are known to cause illnesses in humans also occur in flies, and Drosophila possesses more than 90% of the genes that can trigger cancer in humans.
•  Scientists worked to create disease-free organisms (eugenics).
• It was discovered that it was easy to modify the fruit fly genome to understand how genotype alters phenotype.

Significance of research in this field:

• Research on the body clock has helped scientists improve health. Many drugs now on the market work best when taken at the right time. The cholesterol-cutting drug Mevacor, for example, is taken at night because levels of the enzyme it targets are highest then. The same is true for low-dose aspirin used to reduce blood pressure.

Previous prize winners:

•  Herman Muller, won the 1946 Prize in Physiology or Medicine for discovering that the fruit fly gene could be altered by radiation.
• George W Beadle who, along with Edward L Tatum won one half of the 1958 Prize for their discovery that genes act by regulating definite chemical events.
• In 1995, three development biologists, Edward B Lewis, Christiane Nusslein-Volhard and Eric F Wieschaus, won the Prize for discovering the role of key genes in the development of the fruit fly embryo that also plays a crucial role in human embryonic development.
• Last year the prize was won by  Yoshinori Ohsumi, a Japanese cell biologist who unpicked the mechanisms by which the body break downs and recycles components of cells – a process that guards against various diseases, including cancer and diabetes.