Project description:Drosophila melanogaster larvae reared on isocaloric diets with different protein/sugar ratios, exhibit different developmental times and the eclosed adults show different metabolite pools of glycogen and triglycerides (Matzkin et al., 2011, PMID: 21525254). To investigate the effect of larval diet on adult neurological processes at the gene expression level we performed high throughout RNA sequencing of fly heads reared in two different protein/sugar ratio diets.
Project description:Thermal acclimation study on Drosophila melanogaster reared at 3 different temperatures (12, 25, and 31oC). The proteomic profiles of D. melanogaster under these different temperatures were analyzed and compared using label-free tandem mass spectrometry.
Project description:Gene expression levels were determined in 3rd instar and adult Drosophila melanogaster reared during spaceflight, to elucidate the genetic and molecular mechanisms underpinning the effects of microgravity on the immune system. The goal was to validate the Drosophila model for understanding alterations of innate immune responses in humans due to spaceflight. Five containers of flies, with ten female and five male fruit flies in each container, were housed and bred on the space shuttle (average orbit altitude of 330.35 km) for 12 days and 18.5 hours, with a new generation reared in microgravity. RNA was extracted on the day of shuttle landing from whole body animals (3rd instar larvae and adults), hybridized to Drosophila 2.0 Affymetrix genome arrays, and the expression level of all genes was normalized against the gene expression level from the corresponding developmental stage animals raised on ground. Spaceflight altered the expression of larval genes involved in the maturation of plasmatocytes (macrophages) and their phagocytic response, as well as the level of constitutive expression of pattern recognition receptors and opsonins that specifically recognize bacteria, and of lysozymes, antimicrobial peptide pathway and immune stress genes, hallmarks of humoral immunity.
Project description:We report sex differences in mRNA levels between male and female Drosophila larvae reared on a diet containing sugar (1S) vs a -low-sugar diet (0S)
Project description:Gene expression levels were determined in 3rd instar and adult Drosophila melanogaster reared during spaceflight, to elucidate the genetic and molecular mechanisms underpinning the effects of microgravity on the immune system. The goal was to validate the Drosophila model for understanding alterations of innate immune responses in humans due to spaceflight. Five containers of flies, with ten female and five male fruit flies in each container, were housed and bred on the space shuttle (average orbit altitude of 330.35 km) for 12 days and 18.5 hours, with a new generation reared in microgravity. RNA was extracted on the day of shuttle landing from whole body animals (3rd instar larvae and adults), hybridized to Drosophila 2.0 Affymetrix genome arrays, and the expression level of all genes was normalized against the gene expression level from the corresponding developmental stage animals raised on ground. Spaceflight altered the expression of larval genes involved in the maturation of plasmatocytes (macrophages) and their phagocytic response, as well as the level of constitutive expression of pattern recognition receptors and opsonins that specifically recognize bacteria, and of lysozymes, antimicrobial peptide pathway and immune stress genes, hallmarks of humoral immunity. Larval microarrays (FL 6 samples) are based on RNA extracted from 6 independent sets of 50 mid 3rd instar larvae reared in microgravity and collected on the day of landing after 12 days and 18.5 hours on the space shuttle and the same number of control larvae raised on ground (GL 6 samples). Adults microarrays (F1 3 samples) are based on RNA from 3 sets of 20 adult females each, that emerged during spaceflight and within 4 hours of landing and the same number of adult females from the corresponding ground control containers (G1 3 samples).
Project description:This study was performed by testing 21 wildtype genetic lines on four different diets to look at the transcriptomic, metabolomic, and gross phenotype variation. The diets used were Normal Cornmeal-molasses symbolized N, high sugar symbolized 4, high fat F, and control C a low sugar diet. Larvae were raised from hatching to 3rd instar on the respecitve diets at a density of 50 larvae per food vial. Larvae were then collected for metabolomics, transcriptomic, and gross phenotype measurements (e.g. trehalose concentration, triglyceride concentration). Samples for transcriptomic and metabolomic analyses were snap frozen in liquid nitrogen.
Project description:Transcription profiling of third instar male larvae of two different heteroallelic combinations of ssdp hypomorphic alleles, ssdp[neo48]/ssdp]BG1663] and ssdp[31]/ssdp[BG1663] were compared to each of the corresponding single heterozygotes
Project description:Genes with sex-biased expression in adults experience unique evolutionary dynamics. It is unclear, however, whether the selection pressures responsible for these well documented patterns also act upon genes with sex-biased expression in other developmental stages. To examine this, we measured expression in male and female Drosophila melanogaster larvae. Drosophila melanogaster wandering third instar larvae were sexed using the visible gonad. RNA was isolated from three replicate samples of male and female larvae and one sample each of adult males and females. RNA was prepared following the manufacturer's instructions, using single color labelling. Each sample/replicate was hybridized to one sector of the Agilent 4 sector array (a total of two arrays were used), with the following design: Array 1 had one larval male sample, one larval female sample, one adult male sample, and one adult female sample; Array 2 had two larval male samples and two larval female samples.
Project description:We used microarrays to investigate the transcriptome of male flies exposed to either a rich or a poor nutrient environment during development. Further we investigated transcriptome of their offspring and grand-offspring also developed at poor or rich diet. The ability of organisms to cope with poor quality nutrition is essential for their persistence. For species with short generation time, the nutritional environments can transcend generations, making it beneficial for adults to prime their offspring to particular diets. However, our understanding of potential adaptive generational effects, including those of diet quality, is still very limited. Here we use the vinegar fly, Drosophila melanogaster, to investigate if females developing as larvae on a nutritionally poor diet produce offspring that are primed for nutrient deficiencies in the following generations. We found that females developed at low quality diets produced offspring, which at similarly low-quality diets had both increased egg-to-adult viability and starvation tolerance compared to females experiencing a nutrient rich diet in the previous generation. When testing the persistence of such generational priming, we found that just one generation of high-quality diet is sufficient to return performance to initial levels. A global transcriptomic profile analysis suggests that the observed phenotypic priming is not a constitutive transcriptomic adjustment, instead offspring appear primed to initiate an adaptive response only when exposed to low quality diets. Our results show that generational priming is likely an important adaptive mechanism of coping with transient nutritional fluctuations.
Project description:To investigate gene expression changes in Drosophila head tissues during social isolation, we performed RNA-sequencing on fruit fly head samples obtained from male flies that have been group-reared for 7 days (Grp), isolated (single-housed) for 7 days (Iso7) and isolated (single-housed) for only 1 day (Iso1). Using differential gene expression analysis, we found a group of candidate genes that are specific to chronic social isolation: they exhibited significant gene expression change in both comparisons of “Grp vs Iso1” and “Iso1 vs Iso7”.