The Gene That Sets the Clock: How One Enzyme Decides How Long a Fly Lives and How Many Eggs It Lays
The fruit fly Drosophila is a tiny laboratory where you can switch any gene on or off to figure out what it does. One such gene, EDTP, encodes an enzyme that strips phosphate tags off fat molecules inside the cell. It was once thought that this enzyme helps cells digest waste and that without it flies die before birth. But what happens when the enzyme is merely scarce rather than absent?