Gay Drunk Fruit Flies

Two recent studies reported in the media don’t bode well for fruit flies in 2008… particularly the ones who like to engage in a little same sex mounting behavior.

The first study documented a method for turning supposedly “straight” fruit flies “gay”. Using both genetic manipulation and drug treatment researchers discovered that they could make male fruit flies mount other male fruit flies (and when they did they called them “gay” or “bisexual”). They were also able to reverse the effect, apparently turning the bi or gay fruit flies straight again. Neither the study itself nor much of the media attention paid to it bothers to question the validity of using terms like heterosexual, homosexual, and bisexual when referencing the actions of fruit flies.

A second study, unrelated to the first, and published just last week in the journal PloS ONE examined the effects of long term alcohol on the sexual behavior of male fruit flies. In this study researchers were able to document for the first time a physiological basis for increased sexual arousal and decreased sexual inhibition in male fruit flies that were given daily doses of ethanol to mimic the drinking habits of people who chronically abuse alcohol. The decreased sexual inhibition documented by the researchers involved male fruit flies “courting” other male fruit flies. The theory is that without the alcohol male fruit flies are sexually inhibited and that’s why they don’t go after other males.

Both studies, from what I hear, are in fact quite elegant, carefully conducted, and importantly add to scientific knowledge. The authors of the second study seem to have been more careful in the way they have written up their research, referring to specific behaviors and not broad sexual-social identities. But in both cases I wonder about the male fruit flies who just like to mount other male fruit flies, without drugs, alcohol, or genetic manipulation. Where are their voices?

Read more – LA Times Opinion: So a fruit fly goes to a bar ...

Read more – New Scientist: Randy flies reveal how booze affects inhibitions

Hear more – The Pleasure Report: Gay Fruit Flies

_{Photo credit: Jim Wehtje/Getty Images}