Our Cousins, The Fruit Flies

   168    
2

A few weeks ago I wrote about showing up at the Pearly Gates and God asking you what you did with your talents and you drawing a blank. Then I got an email from a 48-year old lady, “a mother of four and a wife to one man” she wrote (just incase there was a chance she could be a wife to two men) who said she once loved writing but she sort of walked away from it. Now she wants to revive it and could I read this piece on fruit flies?

Wait, fruit flies?!

What does she do from 8-5? She’s a compliance professional, specializing in Export Control Compliance, U.S. Laws and Regulations that regulates and restricts access of certain US technologies by foreigners. “In short,” she wrote, “I keep people out of jail.”

She works for Kansas State University in Manhattan, Kansas. Once upon a time she worked in Kenya for International Livestock Research Institute (ILRI). I can’t even start following her career path.

There are people who are passionate about cars, then there are people who are passionate about fruit flies. To each his own. I’m running this piece because of a few reasons:

  1. It’s about bloody fruit flies for chrissake, even fruit flies have the right to be heard.
  2.  She’s 48-years old (the oldest person we have hosted here as a guest writer) and is brave enough to pursue her passion and agree to be hosted here.
  3. She’s a wife to one man. Surely, that should be congratulated.
  4. She’s an invested writer with a racy cheek buried in the initial artistic self-doubt. (She also sent me articles about her boss’s cat called Ghost and about how she feels very old because now her eyesight is failing and she has to read messages by holding her phone a meter away).  

Gang, meet Rose Ndegwa. Rose, talk directly into that blue microphone.

And on a side note: Happy birthday to Cliff The Tall, an ardent reader and commenter here. Enjoy the third floor, boss. Just get a new profile picture while at it.

(Yvonne, the editor here asked me, “Kwani how tall is this Cliff?” Cliff, answer the lady.)

   ***

It is said that some of the best creative ideas happen in the shower. It has something to do with the rain-like rhythm of water and the shower jet streams hitting against the skin, igniting the neurons in the right brain. That is why people who croak suddenly find their voice in the shower. I like the shower, but by far my favourite room is the toilet. I realize that might sound a little gross to some, but it is my ultimate Zen room. I have no idea if biological functions that take place in the toilet cause the brain to produce dopamine in the same way that a shower does. The term ‘poo-phoria’ has been used to describe the feeling of relaxation that accompanies bio-breaks, but that is not what it is for me. I simply love the privacy that the 4 x4 ft cubical provides. My wackiest ideas happen in the toilet. I have read countless books- cover to cover- in the toilet, not in one sitting, of course. I have taken power naps in the toilet. I have prayed in the toilet and have retreated there to de-stress.

I am not a big fan of the toilets that are open at the bottom so that you can see the occupant’s feet from outside or an adjacent cubicle. I do not know what purpose is served by that gap at the bottom, other than being able to easily retrieve a person who, for whatever reason, passes out in the toilet. I just do not like next-door occupant looking at my toes or my shoes.  

“What in the world did you have for dinner, Ms. Pink Wedges?”

My Zen toilet at Chiromo was on this long hallway on third floor of the Botany building. It was a lonely toilet, hardly ever visited by anyone else. The perfect hideaway.  I revised for several exams and CATS in that toilet. And it was in that toilet that I decided I did not want to pursue science, because I did not have the tenacity or patience required to be a scientist. It all started with an experiment on fruit flies.          

As a first-year zoology student at Chiromo, I was studying the basics of Mendelian laws of genetics, by experimenting with the fruit fly, a.k.a. Drosophila melanogaster (Ndomba or Gathugumîri in Kikuyu, and for all you Magufuli people,  Nzi ya Tunda … I think!). The fruit fly is that little fly hovering over fruit in your kitchen. It is a perfect model for study of many biological processes including genetics because of its varying genetic traits that are expressed as easily distinguishable physical features or phenotypes. It is also easy to tell male from female.  The gist of the experiment was you had fruit fly eggs in a bottle which contained a culture medium. Once the eggs hatched and adults emerged, you had to separate the boys from the girls, select specific phenotypes, and allow them to mate and lay eggs. The experiment is repeated a number of times, each time selecting certain predetermined characteristics easy-peasy.

The experiment was going well. I fantasized about becoming a geneticist someday, spending the rest of my entire life looking at flies under a microscope, admiring the colour of their eyes, the length of their wings, number of segments on the tummies, selecting and mating them, just like Gregor Mendel and his peas (remember him, the guy who spent his life looking at pod shapes and color of peas?). But, as Murphy’s law would have it, the last day of the pupa stage for my flies fell on a Friday, which meant that there was a good chance that adult flies would emerge on Friday night. Female fruit flies become receptive to courting males eight hours after emergence. It is not underage sex; they are actually mature for a creature whose lifespan is 40-120 days.

There was a must-go-to Friday party. Should I take the culture bottle to the party and take internment breaks from the party to see if the flies had emerged? If they did, I could possibly, separate the boys and set them free to join the party. Fruit flies love empty soda and beer bottles, so I was certain that they would feel at home. Or should I skip the party altogether? That is what a student aspiring to be a career scientist ought to do, right? But this was first-year, and generally speaking, parties ranked higher in importance than class projects.  May be there is such a thing as post-term Drosophila babies, like women who carry pregnancies well into the 44th week? I crossed fingers and prayed that the flies would hold on and wait until I got back. They probably did- I will never know – because I did not get back to my room until Saturday afternoon and by then, it was too late even for post-term babies. The adult flies were well on their way to becoming grandparents. There was no way to salvage the experiment.   

Turns out that I should have had more respect for this fly. Drosophila is one of most extensively used and studied model organism. Model organisms are important because by understanding how certain biological processes progress in the model organism, we can gain insight into how similar processes progress in human beings. There are other model organisms, such as the rat, but for certain processes, the fruit fly is preferred. It is easy to culture and cheap to maintain, multiplies in large numbers, and has a short lifespan. From an ethical viewpoint too, no one would find it objectionable that gazillions of flies are raised for research purposes and washed down the drain when the research done (But seriously, where are the animal rights people? Doesn’t the life of this fly matter?)

If you are wondering what you have in common with the fruit fly, apart from love of fruit, how about this: the gene sequences in the fruit fly so closely resembles human genes, that human genes can be matched to equivalent genes in the fly. In fact, 75% of human disease-causing genes are believed to have a functional equivalent gene in the fly. So in addition to genetics, the fruit fly is making contributions into the understanding progression, of diseases like Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s, are being studied using the fruit fly.

By the way, that kikuyu name for the fruit fly gathugumîri, literally translates to “that ka-thing that pees on something”, usually the eye. If you ever have a fruit fly in your eye, you will remember. It will live up to its name and it burns like crazy. I wonder though, what causes it to take a leak in the eye. I mean, does it intentionally look for an eye the way we look for a toilet when we really have to go? Or is it revenge taken on behalf of gazillions of fruit flies that we have sacrificed in research?  Perhaps fruit flies are just downright lazy, like people who get into a swimming pool, only to realize they needed to use the bathroom, but being too lazy, they go, right there in the swimming pool.  If you are thinking what kind of crazy people do that, think again. Look at the people around you next time you happen by a swimming pool. You would not lose if you had to bet that one of them has peed in the pool. While on the subject, it is good to wear flip-flops or slippers in those shower rooms in the gym. Some people pee as they sing in the shower.  

May be the fruit fly is just opportunistic, venturing into whatever open door it encounters. Like the bugs that fly right into your throat during a morning run, forcing you to make quick life or death decision. Should you end its misery by washing it down with a sip of water, or should you try to save it by sputtering and spitting it out? Useless question because the result is always the same – death by drowning.

PS:   I aced that genetics class. I got a creative and fabricated the data. I know, I know…I am not proud of it.

PPS:  Drosophilas in the kitchen is not an entirely negative thing. It is evidence that Mwende is trustworthy and has not been eating those mangoes you bought for the kids.

img credit – deviantart.com

Leave a Reply to Esther Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published.

2
168 Comments
  1. Hurraaaaaaaaay! (insert short dance) thank you JACKSON (insert evil laughter) https://ekichir.blogspot.co.ke

  2. Well, that was more biology than I learnt over four years in high school. I know Ndombas, not gene-wise, just purely from the annoyance of peeing in eyes of humans like me. The new knowledge i have had include new words Drosophila melanogaster and Phenotypes. Sigh, what am I even saying. Well, maybe just thanks for the article Rose Ndegwa. Also, happy birthday Cliff the Tall.

    1
  3. Will start looking at those flies with new pair of eyes- so long as they don’t take a leak therein. Nice read Madam

  4. Hi Biko. I wish you would still write even when we have a guest writer. We or rather I come here all the time to be fed by you.

  5. My fav room too….(but now my baby boy keeps joining me:(…
    And dear mother of 4,did you say 44 weeks pregnancy??? Woi!,No way…I’m 36! Wondering when it will end:).
    Welcome guest writer n all the best.

  6. Happy birthday Cliff the tall.
    .
    Meanwhile, Yvonne you missed a spot…right there after Rose talks about Alzheimer’s.

  7. I dont know why i read this article to end.Moving on swiftly,can you two decide on who wrote “A few weeks ago I wrote about showing up at the Pearly Gates and God asking you what you did with your talents and you drawing a blank”.

    1. I would like to think that Biko did an article here on some of us sleeping on our talents(I am yet to discover mine but I am sure eating and sleeping sneak in here) and Rose was intrigued, reason why she wrote this. She doesn’t want to go to heaven and draw blanks. She will say…but I wrote an article on Biko’s blog”

      1
  8. That was different but still good. Happy Birthday Cliff the Tall; please address the nation on this important matter and inform us on exactly how tall you are.

    1
  9. How you manage to do this every Tuesday without failure is a mistery yet to be resolved.That was a nice article.Thanks Biko

  10. If anything to go by, I should have been a scientist; my love for the loo with pages turning one after the other. The biological terms though, I mispelt them all. Great read!

  11. I love it! She is witty and the story was delightfully different from what I would’ve expected. PS: Biko, don’t play favourites here…from now on, you wish ALL of us happy birthday. Mine’s in August. Happy birthday Cliff:)

    1
  12. for the first time i manage to read the article not only the day it was posted but some minutes after it has been posted.

    i dont love biology cause it is hard but again i have to love it cause bae is a doctor. nice read always.

  13. Drosophila melanogaster has to either be underlined separately or italicized if we are to strictly follow rules of biology. Lol. Good piece Rose Ndegwa; thank you for reminding me some awesome words such as phenotype. I have one question though: Talking of animal rights, is there evidence linking suffering, isolation, or distress among fruit flies in laboratories during experimental procedures.Happy birthday Cliff

    1. There very well might be. Who knows, may be it’s the reason they pee on us. They have a very complex brain structure – for a 3mm creature.

      2
  14. Yvonne missed a spot. Great genetics recall. Great read kama kawaida. So birthdays are celebrated around here huh , mine is coming up next year Jan 30th. Mark your calendars.

  15. Nice read Esther. I don’t know if anyone else noticed it, I felt there was a detour in the storyline. These two paragraphs that come after the Alzheimer’s bit feel more like they should have been in the introduction part. Just my thought.
    Halafu, I thought ni Biko aliandika about showing up at the pearly gates but I can see it in Esther’s excerpt (hapo kwa paragraph ya Alzheimer’s)

  16. Oh wow..quite an informative piece. Thank you Rose!
    Now I know something about fruit flies. The complexity and detail in every individual life form no matter how small or big their size points to the magnificence of our Creator, the Brainiac in Chief, designer of it all.
    Zen moments in a public loo sounds like an impossible feat. I always wondered about friends who have a rack of magazines in there. Doesn’t that encourage piles?

    1
  17. This is quite impressive!! Reignites my love for molecular biology and genetics, she has a way of making biology look cool!!!

  18. Wow, no longer a stranger in the fruit fly world! This pieces was well written. It kept me glued to my phone screen till the end. Keep writing Rose!

    1
  19. Interesting very interesting. I read every word of it. But I still cant fathom the patience that Scientists have. Those people are special. They make good reading of their findings.

  20. Hehehe. Thank you Biko and the gang for your birthday wishes.I truly appreciate. Profile pic will be changed for sure. Yvonne, am 6’4 inches only. There is room for more though. I know my potential in matters growing tall. Moving on, the piece by Rose was so spot on. The humor is good in so many levels. I now know a thing or two about The fruit flies. I think the swahili name would have been Matunda za kupaa. Yes?

    3
    1. eventually you showed up with some new photo, how tall are you exactly buddy. oops where are my manners. welcome to he third floor bro

    2. Happy belted bday @clif_the_tall… one question though.. on a “good” year how may times does your height get you laid?? hehehe

    3. happy belated birthday Cliff the tall. You too tall I might reach your waist only hahaha. And I second your hilarious swahili translation. Let’s call them matunda za kupaa lol

  21. Great read Rose.
    You will make a great writer.
    Your seamless pace, i was reading about fruit flies as if i will be tested on it.

  22. I am not a big fan of the toilets that are open at the bottom so that you can see the occupant’s feet from outside or an adjacent cubicle. I do not know what purpose is served by that gap at the bottom, other than being able to easily retrieve a person who, for whatever reason, passes out in the toilet. I just do not like next-door occupant looking at my toes or my shoes.

  23. Oh my freakn gosh I love i love I love genetics dear! Thoroughly enjoyed the read… I recall our highschool teacher saying something about fruitflies being the best in these typa studies because their phenotypic qualities are distinct, many, and they produce subsequent generations in a short period of time. Still trynna figure out if I should go the psychology way or the genetics way. Someone’s gotta find the genes that code for schizophrenia right? 🙂

  24. interesting, i have been trapping fruit flies in clear cups and plastic bags all week at my place. the rate at which those little things multiply is crazy.
    and not long ago, i was asking a friend why they target to pee inside the eye. i was reading that part so keenly to get to where the geneticist would explain the science behind it but sadly none.
    i love this piece Rose. drop by more often?

  25. Nice piece. And Rose, I read that the fruit fly,s sperm is twenty times the length of its body. Is it true really? Just asking.

  26. This Rose lady is hillarious!ati “What in the world did you have for dinner Miss Pink Wedges?Should I audition for the second husband part?I really would love to pick your brain!

  27. You know that moment you see a tough word like Drosophila melanogaster and decide you wont read it? yeah, I skipped it every time, I haven’t even come around to read it yet. I was waiting to read why the fruit flies attack the dead fruit (as in the photo) but it never came around too!

  28. Wow Rose, you hid this talents well when at ILRI! Who would have
    thought you could do this! You could have written all our funding proposals!
    Nice read and congrats!

  29. “I fantasized about becoming a geneticist someday, spending the rest of
    my entire life looking at flies under a microscope, admiring the colour of their eyes,
    the length of their wings, number of segments on the tummies, selecting and mating them…”
    This is the stuff of fantasy (for scientists!)

  30. Rose, that’s commendable, the writing not revising in the toilet. And to keep the two of you out of jail, who owns this statement;”A few weeks ago I wrote about showing up at the Pearly Gates and God asking you what you did with your talents and you drawing a blank”
    Happy birthday Cliff.

  31. Great writer! Show’s one shouldn’t give up on their dreams after progressing into parenthood and all.
    Her symbolism between human life and the fruit life is top notch as well hahaha. I have seen a similar article that
    describes all four Kenyan presidencies using nduthis. Yes. Nduthis.
    https://www.africantrainofthought.com/single-post/2017/03/31/To-Ndu-this-or-not-to-Ndu-this

  32. Great read. Who would have thought fruit flies would be interesting. This part was hilarious. “What in the world did you have for dinner, Ms. Pink Wedges?”
    Happy birthday Cliff the tall 🙂

  33. O_o fruit flies were animals after all, i thought it would be cousins flying fruits to/at each other. Good read tho’

  34. Reading creates this mental image, I always had one of the guy speaking until I googled your pic and now I am disoriented I have to come back and read this when I adjust to the new mental image.

  35. Nice read kudos Rose, @cliff the tall welcome to third floor though with your height you could already see what was happening in third floor, while you were still in second floor.

  36. I know the toilet you are talking about as a chiromo alumni.I loved that loo too.so much I once made out with my campo boyfie in that loo during an invertebrate biology lab lesson.LOL.. Nice read you should write more.maybe in those scientific journals as a comic relief once one is done reading the “boring” articles.

  37. Kudos Rose Ndegwa ! That’s downright cool and freakishly exciting for an entomology class.But the part where you relate it with our own kind is spot on.
    Happy birthday Cliff.Watch your height.

  38. congratulations!
    unrelated, why is Biko conspicuously missing from this year’s BAKE awards? Decided to leave it for the kids?

  39. Me and cats no so don’t even touch he boss’s cat,biology was a lesson i heard was in my school taught in the afternoon after githeri had taken control of my eyes and brain,zzzzzzz
    i would rather form a commission of inquiry to inquire as to why the other commission did not give us a heads up on Cliffs “tall” birthday.
    I hope they won report back and say “That smoke…………work of Biko trying to confuse us with the guest writer or was it burning mattress?”

  40. WOW, that was different. In a good way. Nice piece Rose Ndegwa.. making science and complex genetics readable. Gregor Mendel if my memory serves me right was a monk.

  41. I love that 4 by 4 room. It allows me to get away from the noise and madness in life. I agree power naps in there have really helped especially when you have a busy season at the office. Great writing here. She should have been a writer from the word go. If she can write this way about a fruit fly then she she should go on and serve us more of her genius.

  42. Swahili nomenclature 101: Nah, Nzi ya Tunda just won’t do for the fruit fly! The rule of thumb is to get the verb derivative of the noun (not sure there is such a thing) and use it to name the species that is the fruit fly. In our case, this would be derived as follows: Fly equates to ‘kuburuka’ in Swahili (the verb); hence the verb derivative would be ‘kiburushi’ (i.e. something that flies). Then, depending on the types of fruits grown in one’s locale, or observations as to the types of fruits or liquids a particular group of fruit flies is attracted to, we would then end up with ‘Kiburushi nazi’ (fruit fly drawn to coconuts), ‘Kiburushi embe’ (the mango fruit fly), ‘Kiburushi sherbeti’ (a drunkard fruit fly with a liking for wine), ‘Kiburushi mwitu’ (an uncultured fruit fly whose taste is scattered across a salad of fruits) and so on. Otherwise, a nice read, says www.zurikiki.com .

  43. “It is said that some of the best creative ideas happen in the shower. It has something to do with the rain-like rhythm of water and the shower jet streams hitting against the skin, igniting the neurons in the right brain”. Totally true for me. Now I know why. Nice read Rose.

  44. Who is a ms. pink wedges? i asked my girlfriend
    Uh a ms wearing pink wedges?
    what are wedges?
    some type of shoes, grandpa.
    oh it all makes sense now.

  45. wow..great piece….especially after studying their behavioural responses to stimuli…loving every part of this piece

  46. Who would have thought a piece on bugs would be this entertaining. Post the cat story- It can’t be that bad _ cats have nine lives must be worth reading

  47. Biko….Anyway good job Rose Ndegwa.
    One day I will write about my love for dark toilets…no turning lights on and the thrill of knowing the exact number of steps to the toilet in the dead of the night.
    Afro cinema coming shortly.

  48. Awesome piece Rose , You’ve made an exact science sound really cool in a social
    science forum , keep it up !

  49. Bleeding rabbits in the lab made me trade research for a sales job after for years and a good grade. Memories awakened

  50. Nice read Rose. This is a very interesting platform Biko. Maybe one day I will submit my piece. I hope it passes the screening.

  51. Nice article. It like ladies think in the toilet reminds me of the short story by Bessie Head called the toilet . About that gathugumiri imagine riding a motor cycle and then you encounter the kafly stright into the eye.

  52. Nice write up Rose. Genetics 101 awakened. Please write more on scientific topics like that and we shall love..And the 4by4 cubicle….can be a place for bursts ofclear thinking….i love those moments!

  53. Drosophila melanogaster I remember that…. a gene and a species name….
    Biologically they had to be underlined…More writings Ndesh

  54. It took me two, wait…three days to read this. I like how disgustfully brilliant the writing is. Biko, as you would say, this one has legs. Keep at it Rose.

  55. some info about hiv. https://kellytaremwa.wordpress.com/2017/02/26/female-hiv-infection-high-could-biology-be-playing-a-part-in-this/

  56. Haha now this is a good piece on taking leaks. Its good to learn from a scientist that
    Animal-people love to do it too. I Am left with one question though, if a small drosophilla is a ‘gathugumiri?’
    What do we make of 80kg grown men peeing in swimming pools? (Read;githugumiri) As i am about to answer the 1st question, more and more keep coming up
    About these people who pee in the bathroom And swimming pools
    Do they watch out for anyone who might be looking?
    Do they examine any colour changes in the water?
    Do they quickly swim away from the scene?
    Do they pity anyone swimming into the redzone while its still fresh?
    Does it feel warm?

    And to you ester,did the gazillion fruitflies haunt and coerced you
    to write about them?

    https://doinsights.wordpress.com/2017/04/01/think/

  57. My only question is why did you not get back to your room until Saturday afternoon haha. Good piece! Takes me back

  58. speaking of talents and purpose. I’ve just watched a movie where a student told a monk his purpose in life is finding his purpose

  59. Nice one Rose… but wait a minute; this peeing while singing in the bathroom, I bet you have experience with that. Me too.
    http://www.osanospeaks.com/

  60. I didn’t imagine an article on fruit flies could be so interesting. Awesome read. Biko you should consider featuring Rose more… I wonder which animal she’ll write about next time.

  61. “It is said that some of the best creative ideas happen
    in the shower….. I like the shower, but by far my
    favourite room is the toilet. I realize that might
    sound a little gross to some…”
    Dear Guest writer, i do have similar habits or something
    like that. I tend to make decisive and informed decisions
    in the toilet and i have been wondering, am i normal?
    I honestly do not know but it works for me.
    Thanks for piece.

  62. I looove the read… Surely Biko’s guest post never ever disappoint so far.. Sing get why there were some people hating though.. I’m taking science at Chiromo, used that very Zoology lab severally, did that gene sequence thing with the drosophila. So do I relate? 100/

  63. The title had put me off but upon reading, its quite an interesting piece and I relate, the toilet is the best place, to meditate and create.

  64. Late read but Rose Ndegwa definitely ignites the passion for science…
    Fruitflies genome and the human genome…didn’t know that

  65. Fulfilling showers are climaxed by that pee in the bathroom… Blame it on the effect of flowing water on the body