A study of fruit flies finds that heavy drinking may initiate a genetic process that increases alcohol tolerance but also switches the body from metabolizing alcohol to forming fat in the liver -- the underpinning of the deadly disease cirrhosis.

North Carolina State University researchers said the findings could have implications for human drinkers: the genes that help fruit flies adapt to alcohol consumption have a corollary in the human ME1 gene, which is known to be related to alcohol use.

"Our findings point to metabolic pathways associated with proclivity for alcohol consumption that may ultimately be implicated in excessive drinking," lead study author Robert Anholt said. "Translational studies like this one, in which discoveries from model organisms can be applied to insights in human biology, can help us understand the balance between nature and nurture, why we behave the way we do, and -- for better or worse -- what makes us tick."

The study was published in the October 2009 issue of the journal Genetics.