Definitions

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • proper noun A certain mutant strain of fruit fly (Drosophila melanogaster) with heightened sensitivity to ethyl alcohol (ethanol), causing it to lose postural control at lower concentrations of the drug.

Etymologies

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

Coined by Monica S. Moore et al. in 1998 (see 1998 quotation), from “cheap date”, the idea being that it is less expensive to buy an evening's worth of drinks for a person with a lower tolerance for alcohol. (Fruit-fly mutants are frequently given such clever or whimsical names.)

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Examples

  • So here is a toast to some of the coolest research in recent years, the discovery of a set of alcohol-sensitive mutants named cheapdate, lightweight, barfly and tipsy, and what drunk flies have to say about us.

    Balloon Juice » 2006 » March 2006

  • More mutants originally known for their defects in memory and learning – rutabaga and fasciclin II – went throught the inebriometer and dropped out almost as fast as cheapdate.

    Balloon Juice » 2006 » March 2006

  • The first fly to drop out of Heberlein’s inebriometer, the appropriately-named cheapdate mutant, barely needed the fly equivalent of a Kahlua shot before it folded it up its wings and dropped.

    Balloon Juice » 2006 » March 2006

  • Unlike cheapdate and lightweight, barfly and tipsy influence alcohol’s sedative effect instead of its impact on posture and coordination.

    Balloon Juice » 2006 » March 2006

  • More mutants have been identified but haven’t yet been characterized to the same degree as cheapdate: lightweight has the same effect as cheapdate but acts on a different gene, while barfly and tipsy have opposite effects in the inebriometer, the former making flies more resistant to alcohol and the latter making them sensitive.

    Balloon Juice » 2006 » March 2006

Comments

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  • A gene that causes fruit flies—and perhaps humans—to more readily succumb to the effects of alcohol.

    October 11, 2007

  • Sweet! How did I miss it?

    *added*

    October 11, 2007

  • I love nerds with a good sense of humor. :) Wasn't there a hair club for scientists at some point?

    October 12, 2007