A new study reveals that researchers have discovered the process through which sperm cells of a fruit fly develop their flagella.

Using electron microscopy – which allows scientists to see structures that are 3,500 times thinner than a strand of human hair – Monica Bettencourt-Dias and her team described, for the first time ever, the different steps involved in making a motile flagellum in sperm cells of the fruit fly (Drosophila melanogaster). The team was particularly interested in when and how a critical protein structure – called the central microtubule pair – is formed. Without the central microtubule pair complex, the flagellum is unable to move in a coordinated fashion.
Source-Eurekalert