Picking Out Human Clues From a Fruit Fly's Gut

University of Cambridge / Irene Miguel-Aliaga

Researchers hope to better understand the human digestive system by studying the insides of fruit flies. In this microscopic image, you can view different parts of the fruit fly digestive tract. For more, click here

Fruit fly feces have helped researchers at the University of Cambridge understand how the gut's nerve cells affect metabolism. In this image, you can see nerve cells (green) in the brain (blue) transmit axons into the fruit fly intestine(red).

Fruit fly droppings marked by a pH indicator measuring acid levels. Examining fruit fly poo has allowed scientists to assign different functions to different intestinal neurons. Some regulate appetite, for example, while others adjust intestinal water balance during reproduction.

Converging sections of a fruit fly intestine.

Intestinal cells marked in green and red and nerve cells, colored in blue.

Image of a fruit fly rectum. You can make out the muscles, colored in red as well as the nerve cells, colored in green.

Another view of the digestive tract of a fruit fly with nerve cells in red and muscle cells in blue.

Nerve cells in red and axons in green near the muscle (colored blue.