Male fruit flies enjoy ejaculation

ScienceNews.com ^ | Apr 19, 2018 | SUSAN MILIUS

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A probe of the brain’s reward system looks at Drosophila sex (or lack thereof) and drinking.

Moody red lighting in a lab is helping researchers figure out what fruit flies like best about sex.

The question has arisen as scientists try to tease out the neurobiological steps in how the brain’s natural reward system can get hijacked in alcoholism, says neuroscientist Galit Shohat-Ophir of Bar-Ilan University in Ramat Gan, Israel.

Male fruit flies (Drosophila melanogaster) were genetically engineered to ejaculate when exposed to a red light.

Ejaculation increased signs in the insects’ brains of a rewarding experience and decreased the lure of alcohol, researchers found.

After several days in this red-light district, the flies tended to prefer a plain sugary beverage over one spiked with ethanol.

Males not exposed to the red light went for the boozier drink, Shohat-Ophir and colleagues report April 19 in Current Biology.

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[Pearls Before Swine]

That's one happy-looking Drosophilia.

[Vaquero]

My taxes had better not be being used for this.

[ETL]

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[Vaquero]

Do dogs do it flyie style??

[ETL]

Lol! I guess the answer would be yes, since flies were around long before dogs.

[madison10]

Too late.

[Crolis]

Definitely spending time in the red light district.

[ETL]

I wonder if these male “fruit” flies only have sex with other male fruit flies.

[ConservativeMind]

How do you know those aren’t two gay flies?

[nickedknack]

>>Male flies repeatedly rejected by females are more likely to get drunk. Those with happy fly sex lives don’t show much interest in alcohol. Male flies find ejaculation itself rewarding...with or without a female present. In rats...the brains of first-timer males light up with intense biochemical signs of reward just from rodent intercourse, regardless of whether ejaculation occurs. In female rats, copulation needs the right circumstances to evoke reward chemistry.<<

Scientists must study fruit flies and rats to know this? Says more about the sex lives of scientists than of fruit flies and rats.

[ETL]

Well, they did refer to them as “fruits”.

[Vigilanteman]

So do their human counterparts. THIS is news?

[grey_whiskers]

So fruit flies confirm two things:
1) Men go to the red light district to get laid.
2) Drinking alcohol is a precursor.
Whatever would we do without government grants?
...how much testosterone do flies produce anyway?

[grey_whiskers]

“Flies were around before all dogs.”
Whatever did flies eat before dog an*t?

[right way right]

I think all critters that do “it”, share this trait.
Who paid for this study?
No, I didn’t read it.

[grey_whiskers]

Whoever invented autocorrect should be burned at the stake.

[Cboldt]

Whoever invented autocorrect should be burned at the steak.

[ETL]

We need another government funded study to look into whether or not FEMALE fruit flies enjoy sex. Perhaps they only PRETEND that they do!