New research has linked the genetic makeup of fruit flies with several outside factors, the key one being the environment.

Virginia Bioinformatics Institute (VBI) at Virginia Tech researchers reported in a press release that two certain groups of fruit flies' gene pool was affected mostly by their environment. The research is somewhat of a physical representation of the "nature versus nurture" theory.

The two fruit flies in the study, published in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, are from opposite sides of the "Evolution Canyon" at Mount Carmel, Israel. The research shows the different populations of the same species can evolve differently depending on their surrounding environment: hot, wet, dry, cold and so on.

"Despite complicating factors, such as likely gene flow between the two populations and changing demographics, the difference in the microclimate in this canyon apparently is so pervasive that it is sufficient to drive the genetic differences," said study co-author Pawel Michalak, a VBI associate professor. "We don't have many examples of rapid environmental adaptation to stressful conditions from the field. We can simulate such conditions in a lab, but it is valuable to observe this actually happening in a natural system."

The Evolution Canyon's two bases are just more than 200 yards apart, but the south-facing side is a tropical rain forest and receives eight times as much sun as its counterpart. The north-facing slope resembles a European forest.

Fruit flies are one of the most studies creatures in the world because 65 percent of disease-causing genes in humans are known to have counterparts in the fly. Such diseases include Alzheimer's, various cancers, Parkinson's, heart disease and more.

The researchers found that the two populations, despite their close proximity, had 572 differing genes.

"Although we were not correlating genetic change with climate change, we were looking at heat-stress effects, which gives us an indirect understanding relevant to global climate changes," Michalak said. "We need some good indicators of genomic changes induced by climate changes. People have ways to cope unlike those of other organisms, but stress-resistance mechanisms are well-conserved in nature. The basic question of how organisms adapt to stressful environments is going to be more important in the years ahead. It affects us as a whole."