Ultra-Microscope Unveils Secrets of the Fruit Fly

An Advanced Microscopy Method Used at the Vienna University of Technology allows Scientists to Study the Genetics of the Fruit Fly. They are the tiny, pesky flies circling the fruit bowl in the kitchen: Drosophila melanogaster, the common fruit fly, is one of the most important species for genetic research. Using an ultra-microscope at the Vienna University of Technology, drosophila's flight muscles have now been studied in great detail. A genetic switch was discovered, which determines the muscle type. A special kind of fibrillar muscles is needed so that the insect can fly - and the genes responsible for that kind of muscle type can be switched on and off by a protein. The results of this research project have now been published in the journal "nature". 3D-Images of The Fruit Fly's Flight Muscles - "The special ultra-microscopy-technique we are using enables us to create three dimensional, high-resulution images of a large number of flies within a very short period of time", says Nina Jährling (Vienna University of Technology).