Based on that flawed paradigm, Rose noted, drugs have been developed to treat diabetes, heart disease and other maladies, some with serious side effects. He said those side effects probably occur because researchers were targeting single genes, rather than the hundreds of possible gene groups like those Burke found in the flies.

Most people don't think of flies as close relatives, but the UCI team said previous research had established that humans and other mammals share 70 percent of the same genes as the tiny, banana-eating insect known as Drosophila melanogaster.

Scientists who did not participate in the work agreed that it could change the direction of much research. "Anyone who expects to find a single solution for problems like aging will be disappointed, because this work suggests there's no one genetic target that could be fixed," said Richard Lenski, an evolutionary biologist at Michigan State University. "On the other hand, it means there are many genetic factors that can be further investigated."

Source: University of California -- Irvine