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TLDR: They damaged a nerve in one leg of the drosophila fly. The injury was then allowed to fully heal. After the injury healed, they found the fly’s other legs
by xenonite 7y ago
TLDR: They damaged a nerve in one leg of the drosophila fly. The injury was then allowed to fully heal. After the injury healed, they found the fly’s other legs had become hypersensitive through loss of the pain inhibitors (GABA).
- zaroth 7y agoI believe they cut off a leg. I don't really get the part where they say they "allowed it to fully heal". [1] Maybe that was a different experiment in the same paper? [1] - https://pbs.twimg.com/media/D_JUvnmUwAAj7Sa.jpg:large https://pbs.twimg.com/media/D_JUvnmUwAAj7Sa.jpg:large
- xenonite 7y agoWell the text I posted was from the journalistic article. The scientific paper indeed says they let the animal recover from the amputated leg. However, as you say, I now agree that it is not clear what they mean with “recovery”. > We amputated the right middle leg of wild-type Canton S flies, allowed the animals to recover, and then evaluated escape responses at different temperatures. While intact animals displayed minimal escape attempts when exposed to a 38°C surface, after amputation, flies showed significantly more escape behaviors.
- ambrop7 7y agoWondering what's genetic about this experiment.