Bonsai flies

If fruitflies are reared without proper nutrition they end up half the normal size. Mutations in a gene calledchicohave now been found to give the same effect. The vertebrate homologues of the Chico protein turn out to be members of the insulin-receptor substrate family, and it is thought that Chico may be part of a nutritional-sensing system that regulates cell growth in response to nutritional conditions.