Drosophila Gene Expression Changes After 12-Day Spaceflight

Five containers of fruit flies were bred on the space shuttle for 12 days and 18.5 hours to study microgravity effects. Gene expression was measured via microarray for 6 larval samples and 3 adult samples, each compared to ground controls. The dataset, from NASA, was last updated in March 2026.

Use Cases

• Identify genes differentially expressed under microgravity based on microarray data.
• Validate the Drosophila model for human immune response changes in space based on described immune pathway alterations.
• Analyze the impact of spaceflight on humoral immunity based on changes in antimicrobial peptides and pattern recognition receptors.
• Compare developmental stage responses to microgravity based on separate larval and adult sample sets.

Strengths

• Experimental design includes 6 larval and 3 adult biological replicates for statistical power.
• Direct comparison of spaceflight and ground control samples for the same developmental stages.
• Focus on specific immune system pathways like phagocytosis and antimicrobial peptides provides clear biological context.

Limitations

• Column-level documentation is absent; field semantics must be inferred after download.
• Row count is unknown, which may limit suitability assessment.
• Data is stored in a BIN format, which may require specialized tools for access and analysis.

Provenance

Source

National Aeronautics and Space Administration

Collection Method

RNA extracted from whole-body Drosophila reared in microgravity on a space shuttle, hybridized to Drosophila 2.0 Affymetrix genome arrays.

Time Range

Experimental duration of 12 days and 18.5 hours.

Freshness

Last updated 2026-03 13 20:15:34.765930; freshness should be verified.

Geography

Space shuttle orbit at an average altitude of 330.35 km.