News in Brief Genetics

Herbicide no match for fruit flies’ gut microbes

Bacteria team up to protect insects from toxic chemical atrazine

fruit fly

GROUP EFFORT  Bacteria in the guts of Drosophila melanogaster fruit flies team up to break down the herbicide atrazine.

Botaurus/Wikimedia Commons

By Tina Hesman Saey

- More than 2 years ago

ORLANDO, Fla. — Fruit flies can break down a popular herbicide with help from friendly microbes, new research suggests.

Drosophila melanogaster fruit flies have no genes needed to process an herbicide called atrazine, statistical biologist James “Ben” Brown of Lawrence Berkeley National Lab in California said July 16 at the Allied Genetics Conference.