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A larvae emerges from an adult fruit fly. (Moore et al., Nature, 2024) ======================================================================= A team of biologists has stumbled across a new species of wasp in an unlikely place: the back end of an adult fruit fly. The wasp is a previously undescribed species the researchers named Syntretus perlmani. And the strangest thing about it? It begins its life in the abdomen of adult Drosophila flies, a place that, as far as we know, no other wasps are willing to go. Though parasitoid wasps lay their young in the bodies of all kinds of insects, up to 200 species...

Adult Wing Precursor Imaginal Cells of Drosophila melanogaster Absence of Chinmo in imaginal cells suppresses wing growth (left) compared to control wing precursor tissue (middle), while overexpression of the Chinmo gene induces tissue overgrowth, as occurs in processes tumors (right). Credit: IBE Researchers discover Chimno, the gene responsible for the juvenile stage in insects. This gene is present in mammals and could play a key role in cancerous processes. The study, which was published in the journal eLife and led by the Institute for Evolutionary Biology (IBE, CSIC-UPF) and the IRB Barcelona, has revealed that the Chinmo gene is responsible...

Abstract The aging process is a universal phenomenon shared by all living organisms. The identification of longevity genes is important in that the study of these genes is likely to yield significant insights into human senescence. In this study, we have identified Tequila as a novel candidate gene involved in the regulation of longevity in Drosophila melanogaster. We have found that a hypomorphic mutation of Tequila (Teq f01792), as well as cell-specific downregulation of Tequila in insulin-producing neurons of the fly, significantly extends life span. Tequila deficiency–induced life-span extension is likely to be associated with reduced insulin-like signaling, because Tequila...