Smells like young fruit flies
16 Feb 2012 by Evoluted New Media
The younger you smell the more likely it is males will be attracted to you – at least that’s true for the common fruit fly.
Researchers from the University of Michigan examined the role of pheromones in the sexual attractiveness and the aging process in the common fruit fly – Drosophila melanogaster. They showed that older flies were significantly less attractive than younger flies, and that the profiles of different pheromones – or cuticular hydrocarbons – that the flies produce changes with age.
“This is new because we have direct evidence that the pheromones produced at these different ages affect sexual attractiveness differently,” said Tsung-Han Kuo, first author of the study published in Journal of Experimental Biology.
Using a specially designed holding area, researchers introduced a male fly to two females – a young and an old fly. The females had been decapitated for that they couldn’t influence the male with their behaviour. Researchers used state-of-the-art video tracking software to accurately access the male fly’s behaviour to show that the male was attracted to the younger fly.
Researchers also removed the pheromones on young and old flies, and reapplied either pheromones from young or old flies to them – the males chose the flies covered with the young pheromones. The same results were shown with female flies – they also picked the younger smelling male.
“Our research showed this attractiveness was driven by the production of this cuticular hydrocarbon,” said Scott D Pletcher, senior author and associate professor in the Department of Molecular and Integrative Physiology. “We found in the end that regardless of the age of the fly, the choosing flied really went crazy for the flies that carried the young pheromone.”
Fruit flies live for between 60 and 90 days, and as such are a powerful tool for studying aging.
“We’re excited about these results because they may help us leverage our knowledge of the mechanisms that drive the aging process,” said Pletcher. “This researcher indicates that the mechanisms important for aging also influence outward attractiveness. Our hope is we can take a trait like attractiveness and study the connection between attractiveness and health.”
