Fruit flies born in space can come down with fungal infections NBC News reported Friday.
A study in the Public Library of Science One science journal states less gravity can make oxygen flow weak in the insects NBC News reported.
"That receptor is somehow not signaling the response for fungal infections," Deborah Kimbrell, a biologist at the University of California at Davis told NBC News. Kimbrell oversaw the scientists who worked on the study.
NASA officials conducted the study in 2006 on its Space Shuttle Discovery aircraft, and discovered that flies who aged in space had more of a chance to contact fungal infections or bacteria found in soil, on plants, trees, and other vegetation according to information on the Centers For Disease Control and Prevention. The bacteria also comes from skin, mucous membranes, and intestinal tracts the CDC's website said.
Scientists examined how immune the fruit flies were to sickness, how much the insects can withstand circumstances without gravity NBC News reported.
Scientists also discovered that regular flies could withstand fungal infections more effectively when gravity was applied NBC News reported.
"Since the human immune system is complex, we used the Drosophila model to tease out the effects of spaceflight on the simpler innate immune system of the fruit fly, focusing on molecular pathways that perform similar functions in the human immune system," Sharmila Bhattacharya, a Ph.D., principal investigator for the FIT study said in a statement. Bhattacharya is also a scientist in the Space Biosciences Division at NASA's Ames Research Center.
NASA is putting a Fruit Fly Lab on its Space X Falcon cargo capsule to gain further knowledge about the species NBC News reported.
"There should be centrifuges for human space travel," Kimbrell told NBC News. "It might be helpful for the immune response to spend a little time on a carnival ride," Kimbrell told NBC News.
