Levels of elastic resilin modulate leg stiffness but not elasticity in Drosophila
Sarah Oeftger, Bernard Moussian, Fritz-Olaf Lehmann · 2026
Read Levels of elastic resilin modulate leg stiffness but not elasticity in Drosophila by Sarah Oeftger, Bernard Moussian, Fritz-Olaf Lehmann (2026) in the Tower of Babel, a free online library of public-domain works preserved in clean, searchable text. No sign-up. The full text is served as a plain-text file at a predictable URL, where text is present: https://antarctic-labs.com/tower-of-babel/PMC13310938.txt.
Description
Sarah Oeftger and co-authors test how the elastic protein resilin shapes fruit fly leg stiffness in a 2026 study. Resilin stores energy, adds flex, and guards hard body parts in insects, and it dots the fly leg in patches. The team raised or cut resilin in a long leg tendon and measured leg response under load.
Raising resilin made legs far stiffer, while cutting it softened them. Leg bend angles under load barely changed, and spring back quality stayed the same at all resilin levels. Stiffness gains came without an elasticity cost, which hints that muscle control and material mix set spring traits. Leg power costs need study in moving flies.
Catalog record
| CREATOR | Sarah Oeftger, Bernard Moussian, Fritz-Olaf Lehmann |
|---|---|
| YEAR | 2026 |
| COLLECTION | PAPERS |
| FORMAT | TXT |
| FILE SIZE | 70022 |
| LICENSE | https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0 |
| RIGHTS | CC BY |
| SOURCE | Europe PMC |