Historically, fly and human Polycomb proteins were considered textbook exemplars of transcriptional repressors, or proteins that silence the process by which DNA gives rise to new proteins.

A unique experiment carried out in a Leicester garden, and concurrently in a garden in Italy, has yielded surprising results that has changed scientific knowledge and is published in one of the world's foremost science journals.

A male, his affections spurned by a female that he's attracted to, is driven to excessive alcohol consumption. The story may be familiar, but in this case, the lead characters aren't humans -- they're fruit flies.

More than two-thirds of human genes have counterparts in the well-studied fruit fly, Drosophila melanogaster, so although it may seem that humans don't have much in common with flies, the correspondence of our genetic instructions is astonishing.

The Genetics Society of America's 53rd Annual Drosophila Research Conference, March 7-11 at the Sheraton Chicago Hotel & Towers, will showcase diverse efforts to understand basic biological processes through the easy-to-study fruit fly, Drosophila melanogaster, and other insects.