A newly-published article on the neurological manipulation of fruit flies has hit the presses. University of Illinois research David Featherstone mutated a gene on fruit fly DNA that basically created bisexual fruit flies. Oddly, most of the press tag these "homosexual" fruit flies, but that isn't the case at all.

In med-speak:

"Here, we show that the glial amino-acid transporter genderblind controls whether Drosophila melanogaster males will attempt to mate with other males. Genderblind (gb) mutant males showed no alteration in heterosexual courtship or copulation, but were attracted to normally unappealing male species-specific chemosensory cues. As a result, genderblind mutant males courted and attempted to copulate with other Drosophila males."

Translation:

Altering a specific gene so that fruit flies don't really care if it's male or female pheremones they react to, male fruit flies will attempt to mate with, to borrow a tongue-in-cheek phrase, any fruit fly that moves.

For neuroscientists of course, this is just another fascinating bit of how our brain's biology works. Fruit flies are pretty simplistic models, but they turn out to be damned good models for all sorts of neurological phenomena, humans included.

For the sex-positive activist, this is also fascinating information, and of course it's going to bring up a few questions. First, let's sort a little wheat from the lay-press chaff here:

A. Featherstone's gene alteration caused what the world usually considers bisexual behavior, not strictly homosexual behavior. Featherstone differentiates homosexual and heterosexual behavior, but observes that the flies do both-- hence, they're bisexual. I've seen more than one article use the term "homosexual fruit flies" but that's not what's happening here at all. Instead, Featherstone shows that a specific gene alteration can turn off the preference for a female pheremones in male fruit flies, creating a gender-blind fruit fly when it comes to mating preferences.

B. This adds a bit more ammunition to the idea that sexual orientation is hard-wired in humans. What makes this fascinating to me is that it finally recognizes that bisexuals actually exist out there. There is far too much binary thinking in terms of sexuality-- the old "what makes a homo a homo", where heterosexuality is the by default the "proper" state of being, and its opposite is homosexuality, with bisexuality being a freak category that far too many heterosexuals just plain ignore and far too many homosexuals think of as fence-sitting. Until we realize that sexual orentation is a far more complex phenomenon, there will always be an "us vs. them" attitude. We need to replace this with the truth that sexuality is a continuum-- you may strongly prefer one gender over another now, but that doesn't rule out shades of gray for most anyone else. Or your future self, for that matter.

C. The need to keep in mind that although there's strong evidence for a genetic link to sexual orientation, the complexity of what it means to be human must always be acknowledged. Human neurology is exponetially more complex than fruit flies, and on top of that there are sociological and cultural aspects to human sexuality that must be taken into account. While it is becoming more and more evident that our neurological makeup makes an individual truly an individual, what that person does with what they have gives us the closest thing to "free will" we have. Who we are as sexual beings is obviously very much tied to how our bodies operate, but it is also tied to how we express ourselves. This may not be a very important distinction to a researcher as such, but it is to an activist.

D. The fun part: As blog readers, you'll probably run into commentary about The Homosexual/Bisexual Fruit Flies again and again. You'll get the usual idiotic remarks from people whose last biology class was in 5th grade, and who think that evolution runs a nicely linear path-- *if* they even acknowledge evolution at all. Two things to readily point out, just so you can blow tiny, tiny minds: First, this isn't a study on evolutionary biology at all, and this says nothing about that hoary question of "where homos come from." In fact, none of the fruit flies were "born THAT way" naturally. Genetic manipulation was involved. Human homosexuals are still being made the old fashioned way, and there's absolutely nothing unnatural about that OR them. Second, about evolution: people with dominant traits pass on recessive traits all the damned time. The argument that states "homosexuality can't be genetic because two homosexuals can't reproduce" is a good sign that the commentator has the IQ of a couch. I'm inclined to recommend that every sex-positive activist out there do some casual research on evolution and biology; you'll be able to knock down a few blowhards along the way with solid information on how evolution actually works.

More on the fruit fly studies here:

Planet Out News

Chicago Sun-Times

Article at NIH PubMed:

Grosjean Y, Grillet M, Augustin H, Ferveur JF, Featherstone DE.
A glial amino-acid transporter controls synapse strength and homosexual courtship in Drosophila. Nat Neurosci. 9 Dec 2007

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