I knew animals got drunk from eating fermented fruits,but I hadn't considered fruit flies drinking habits since they basically appear when fruit is going bad,it made them seem immune to drunkenness. Not so! Fruit flies go through stages of intoxication similar to what humans encounter. Researchers found two mutant strains that could consume more alcohol without passing out and named the gene they had found "happyhour". They also found a gene that made the flies more sensitive to alcohol and called it "cheapdate". The point of the study was finding a way to turn off the switch in alcoholic humans. Thinking back to high-school biology and studying the color of fruit flies eyes this study seems way more productive!
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