Fruit Flies Prioritize Mating Over Survival
Published:16 May2022 Source:University of Birmingham
Fruit flies continue to mate with each other even when infected with deadly pathogens -- reveals a study by researchers at the University of Birmingham.
According to results published today in Proceedings of the Royal Society B, both male and female fruit flies infected with bacterial pathogens show normal levels of courtship and mating success. Mounting an immune response is energetically 'costly', so infections are typically thought to reduce the amount of energy available for other activities such as mating. Surprisingly, however, this study demonstrated that infected fruit flies continued to engage in courtship and mating, regardless of whether either the male or the female fly was infected.