Fly genome aids in hunt for vaccines

It's an almost unavoidable pest, but scientists are now saying the common house fly could hold the key to developing vaccines for a number of human diseases, including typhoid, tuberculosis and cholera.

Researchers at Cornell University sequenced the genomes of six female house flies, or Musca domestica, comparing them to those of the common fruit fly, or Drosophila melanogaster, which can carry bacteria but generally aren't associated with spreading human diseases.

The study, published in scientific journal Genome Biology, highlights detoxification and immune system genes apparently unique to the house fly.

Scientists believe further study could identify how those genes allow flies to break down waste and resist diseases that carry enormous consequences for humans.

"House flies are a fascinating insect for scientists in many areas, such as developmental biology, sex determination, immunity, toxicology and physiology," says lead author of the study, Dr Jeff Scott of Cornell University.

"The completed genome will be a phenomenal tool for researchers in all of these fields and will facilitate rapid advancements.

House flies carry more than 100 human diseases, as well as parasites such as worms and E. coli. Millions of children are infected with trachoma every year thanks to house flies, which have "shown a remarkable ability to rapidly evolve resistance", says Dr Scott.

This rapid evolution has given the house fly a much larger genome than its fruity cousin 691mb compared to 123mb. In comparison, the human genome is about 3000mb.

"The fly had many more immune genes, and that these were of a higher diversity than in the Drosophila genome. Understanding how this fly is immune to the human diseases it carries could help scientists to create treatments or vaccines for these diseases."

More than 90 percent of all flies that live around humans are Musca domestica, which are believed to owe their evolutionary success to their close proximity with humans.

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Fly genome aids in hunt for vaccines