downtoearth-subscribe

EYELESS INSIGHT

Biologist Walter Gehring and his colleagues from the University of Basel in Switzerland have developed genetically engineered swarms of fruit flies, helping them understand how nature fashions the eye in living organisms.

They identified the master control gene, eyeless, instrumental in eye formation in fruit flies. They inserted multiple copies of this gene in fruitfly embryos. The result: flies with multiple eyes positioned all over their bodies.