{"id":5780,"date":"2013-04-27T19:23:54","date_gmt":"2013-04-27T19:23:54","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/schooltutoring.com\/help\/?p=5780"},"modified":"2014-12-02T08:27:03","modified_gmt":"2014-12-02T08:27:03","slug":"worms-fruit-flies-and-wounds-a-biology-review","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/schooltutoring.com\/help\/worms-fruit-flies-and-wounds-a-biology-review\/","title":{"rendered":"Worms, Fruit Flies, and Wounds: A Biology Review"},"content":{"rendered":"

Worms and Fruit Flies in Biology<\/strong><\/p>\n

Most students dissect worms many times over in biology class, as they are ideal for locating organs and experiments involving bodily processes.\u00a0 In addition, because fruit flies reproduce very quickly, they are useful in demonstrations of traits across generations.\u00a0 Most recently, scientists have used both common roundworms and fruit flies in experiments to study the process of how wounds heal.<\/p>\n

Why Is There Skin?<\/strong><\/p>\n

The skin is very important to an organism’s survival.\u00a0 From fish and amphibians, to birds and reptiles, to humans and other mammals, the skin keeps pathogens out while keeping nutrients in, regulates body temperature and water, and controls a number of processes that are specific to each type of organism.\u00a0 For example, many worms and small insects breathe through their skin, while other animals have developed lungs that control respiration.\u00a0 In humans and other mammals, the skin is the largest bodily organ.<\/p>\n

How Does Skin Heal?<\/strong><\/p>\n

Scientists know a great deal about how new skin forms after the healing process has already started, but not a great deal of what happens right after injury.\u00a0 When the immune system is already compromised, in diabetics, or in the elderly, the healing process after a wound is slow to start.\u00a0 Wounds are easily infected, as new skin does not grow to close the wound and protect the body from pathogens.\u00a0 Disease processes such as gangrene can set in, with serious, sometimes fatal consequences.<\/p>\n

What Scientists Learn from Worms<\/strong><\/p>\n

The type of roundworms that scientists used in experiments have special genes that trigger healing when an injury is made to a worm’s sensitive, transparent skin.\u00a0 The chemical processes that are activated when a worm is wounded use calcium and proteins to close the wound very rapidly.\u00a0 For example, some genes enable proteins to circle the wound, pull it closed, and allow new skin cells to replace those lost from the wound.\u00a0 Rapid wound healing help worms to survive from predators in the wild that pierce their sensitive skin.<\/p>\n

How Fruit Flies Heal<\/strong><\/p>\n

Fruit flies have a hard outer membrane, called an exoskeleton, that protects their internal organs from injury.\u00a0 However, some of the molecular processes involved in wound healing are very similar to the processes in wound healing in mammals.\u00a0 The advantage is that the genetics are much simpler in fruit flies.\u00a0 Specific genes trigger enzymes to create proteins that heal the wound, and other genes trigger processes to fight bacteria and clean the wound.\u00a0 In time, new bandages and medicines will be developed that apply what scientists are learning about the processes involved in wound healing.<\/p>\n

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Worms and Fruit Flies in Biology Most students dissect worms many times over in biology class, as they are ideal for locating organs and experiments involving bodily processes.\u00a0 In addition, because fruit flies reproduce very quickly, they are useful in demonstrations of traits across generations.\u00a0 Most recently, scientists have used both common roundworms and fruit […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":22,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[701,1659,2588,2589],"class_list":["post-5780","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-biology","tag-fruit-flies","tag-skin","tag-worms","tag-wound-healing"],"acf":[],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/schooltutoring.com\/help\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5780","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/schooltutoring.com\/help\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/schooltutoring.com\/help\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/schooltutoring.com\/help\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/22"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/schooltutoring.com\/help\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5780"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/schooltutoring.com\/help\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5780\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/schooltutoring.com\/help\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5780"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/schooltutoring.com\/help\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5780"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/schooltutoring.com\/help\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5780"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}