Jan 2, 2008 09:45 AM
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Tue Feb 9
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Molecular biologists are obsessed with the sex lives of fruit flies (Drosophila melanogaster), and no wonder. It's just so easy to manipulate the little guys. Previously, we told you about how researchers can make fruit flies gay within hours with a drug, and now a research team at Cornell has published a paper about how proteins in fruit fly semen can control the behavior of female flies. The most interesting part is that these same behavior-controlling proteins exist in human semen, too. Find out how sperm is controlling your life after the jump.
Researchers report that several proteins found in Drosophila semen affect the short-term and long-term behavior of ladies who've recently received an injection of it from their insect lovers. In the short term, the lady flies start producing more eggs. And in the long term, they are less receptive to sex with other males. This presumably prevents sperm competition.
No word on exactly how a semen protein might make a lady less receptive to sex with other males. But we do know that many homo sapiens guys have the same protein. So could men be controlling our minds with their semen, making us want to get with them again and again? Not really. Apparently the long term effects of this protein only last about 10 days at the most. That's enough to insure that no other dude's sperm horn in on the fertilization process, but not enough to keep you wedded forever.
Sustained post-mating response in Drosophila melanogaster requires multiple seminal fluid proteins [PLoS Genetics]
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