Coming to terms with death isn’t easy — even if you’re an insect that’s little more than an eighth of an inch in size.
For fruit flies, or Drosophila melanogaster, the mere sight of their companion’s corpses can trigger certain cues known to alter their brain chemistry, deplete fat stores and even cause other flies to avoid them, as if the traumatized insects still carried the stench of death.
What’s more, scientists from the University of Michigan have found that fruit flies who witness their dead comrades age faster and die sooner. They’ve now peered inside the insect’s pint-sized brain to better understand what happens when fruit flies are exposed to death, according to a study recently published in PLOS Biology. The research may have implications for pausing the clock on human aging, as well.
