thinkevolution.net

As you may have heard, Sarah Palin had something to say about science in her recent policy speech in Pittsburg. The woman may be all about seal DNA research, but she thinks fruit fly research is absurd. I kid you not! A quote, from her speech promoting investment of federal research dollars towards childhood disabilities like autism:

For many parents of children with disabilities, the most valuable thing of all is information. Early identification of a cognitive or other disorder, especially autism, can make a life-changing difference. […] We’ve got a three trillion dollar budget, and Congress spends some 18 billion dollars a year on earmarks for political pet projects. That’s more than the shortfall to fully fund the IDEA. Where does a lot of that earmark money end up anyway? […] You’ve heard about some of these pet projects they really don’t make a whole lot of sense and sometimes these dollars go to projects that have little or nothing to do with the public good. Things like fruit fly research in Paris, France. I kid you not.

So here’s the thing. Fruit fly research is valuable because it contributes to our knowledge of things like… autism. Here’s a list of recent basic science research findings using Drosophila melanogaster, my model organism of choice, that have contributed to understanding autism.

September 2007: Research on Drosophila describes the function of neurexin, a protein encoded by a gene for autism. This gene is currently being developed for autism screening in children. Popular press. Scientific article.

April 2008: Drug screening in Drosophila reveals that some pharmaceuticals have the potential to reverse the effects of fragile X syndrome, a leading cause of autism. Popular press. Scientific article.

October 2008: Research on Drosophila shows that mutations at the gene that causes fragile X syndrome affect the transport of mRNA molecules, and suggests a new mechanism for how the disease works. Scientific article.

In progress: A research group in Belgium (not the same as France, but close!) is investigating a gene thought to cause autism, neurobeachin, using Drosophila. Project announcement.

And I am not a genius. These were the first few hits on Google for “drosophila autism.” Furthermore, a quick Pubmed search for “drosophila autism” generates 114 hits (that’s 114 published scientific papers, Palin) and a search for “drosophila ‘mental retardation’” generates 826 hits. That’s research that has an awful lot to do with the public good.

Illustration by Beto Alvarez, Inquirer Staff Artist

Yesterday the Philadelphia Inquirer profiled an article just published by my lab, which demonstrates the role of a gene called couch potato in determining reproductive diapause in fruit flies. Genes in flies are named after their mutant phenotype; when this gene is disrupted, the animals lie around like lazy couch potatoes.

The nifty thing about this new work is that it demonstrates how a single gene—and more specifically, a single nucleotide site within that gene—affects a major phenotype under strong selection in natural populations. Diapause is a physiological state which permits flies to withstand long periods of stress. Flies are more likely to survive winter if they are in diapause, but not all flies are capable of entering diapause. This paper demonstrates that a single nucleotide polymorphism, which is located within the couch potato gene, determines whether flies are diapause-capable or not. From Florida to Maine, natural populations of fruit flies have gradually increasing frequencies of the nucleotide that confers diapause capability—almost all Maine flies, which must survive long winters, carry the diapause allele. Evidence suggests that this polymorphism affects other traits, like lifespan and reproduction, as well. So it’s likely that this single mutation has significant effects on the evolution of many traits. A tidy example of evolution at work (for those keeping track).

The article was published yesterday in PNAS.

The original nerdy Philadelphian.

A couple months ago the NYTimes published an article about “nerdy” people in an East Village bar giving powerpoint presentations on things like intestinal fish tapeworms and light-sensitive robots. Nerd nite originated in Boston and has boasted such presentations as “Beyond ‘Simple Gifts’: the music of the Shakers” and “Cnidaria and Porifera: the socially misunderstood invertebrates.” We really, really need to get something like this going in Philadelphia. Maybe Geekadelphia can get on it?

Anyway the Times article opened with quite a hook (pun intended), aiming, I’m sure, to reel in the dweeb-inclined with a list of what really does have to be the nerdiest of all the creatures. “Pinworms. Flatworms. Roundworms. Fish tapeworms tens of meters long, inside someone’s intestine.” Gross! For those of you for whom this sounds awesome, I have it on good authority that someone may be talking about worms again soon in the East Village. This time the presentation will be on a bizarre copulatory plug phenomenon, in which male worms—which usually put the copulatory plug in the female vulva, where it belongs—sometimes put it on the heads of other males! Obviously, you don’t want to miss it.