What fruit flies can tell us about being social

Description

Professor of neurogenetics Jean-Christophe Billeter is convinced that all life is in essence social. Even fruit flies, which are typically characterized as a solitary species, are social. In Billeter’s lab at the University of Groningen, PhD student Tiphaine Bailly recently found that simply seeing other fruit flies directly affects their hormone levels and, ultimately, the speed and timing of laying eggs.