Home » Psychology news » Gene causes blue light to have a banana odor in fruit flies

Gene causes blue light to have a banana odor in fruit flies

May 27, 2010 by

Scientists in Germany have succeeded to genetically modify fruit fly larvae allowing them to smell blue light. The research team can activate single receptor neurons out of 28 olfactory neurons in the larvae for this sensory perception. Normally animals avoid light. However, blue light simulates in genetically modified larvae the smell of an odorant, e.g., banana, marzipan or glue -- odors which are all present in rotting fruit and attractive to fruit fly larvae.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

*

You may use these HTML tags and attributes: <a href="" title=""> <abbr title=""> <acronym title=""> <b> <blockquote cite=""> <cite> <code> <del datetime=""> <em> <i> <q cite=""> <strike> <strong>