Project description:The foraging gene in Drosophila, encoding PKG, is known for its importance as a natural variant affecting behavioral plasticity. Here, we demonstrate that it also affects metabolic plasticity: Rovers show a greater response to changes in their food environment than do sitters. Using metabolic profiling, we define foraging- and food-dependent changes in metabolites indicating that Rover store energy predominantly as lipids, whereas sitter variants store it as carbohydrates, Such changes are reflected in gene expression patterns, indicating an influence of foraging on regulators of insulin signaling. Combining for alleles with mutants of positive insulin signaling regulators makes Rover responses sitter-like, but does not change sitter responses. Collectively these findings suggest that the effect on metabolic plasticity of foraging works through the insulin signaling pathway. Keywords: stress response, comparative genomic hybridization, genotype by environment
Project description:The foraging gene in Drosophila, encoding PKG, is known for its importance as a natural variant affecting behavioral plasticity. Here, we demonstrate that it also affects metabolic plasticity: Rovers show a greater response to changes in their food environment than do sitters. Using metabolic profiling, we define foraging- and food-dependent changes in metabolites indicating that Rover store energy predominantly as lipids, whereas sitter variants store it as carbohydrates, Such changes are reflected in gene expression patterns, indicating an influence of foraging on regulators of insulin signaling. Combining for alleles with mutants of positive insulin signaling regulators makes Rover responses sitter-like, but does not change sitter responses. Collectively these findings suggest that the effect on metabolic plasticity of foraging works through the insulin signaling pathway. Keywords: stress response, comparative genomic hybridization, genotype by environment Design: 3 genotypes x 2 treatments x 3 replicates. Treatments were leaving flies on lab food (control) or food-depriving them overnight with access to water. Three genotypes differed in foraging alleles: Rovers are homozygous for[R] (strain: BB), sitters homozygous for[s] (strain: ee, mutant sitters homozygous for[s2] (strain:s2) . Adult flies were 6-7 days post emergence. Three samples of equal numbers of male and females were collected per combination, frozen in liquid nitrogen, and heads were sieved for RNA extraction. This Gene by Environment design tests how presence or absence of food for a short period (overnight) affects gene expression in different foraging genotypes.
Project description:Absolute (molar) quantification determines proteins stoichiometry in complexes, networks and metabolic pathways. We employed MS Western workflow to determine molar abundances of proteins critical for morphogenesis and phototransduction (PT) in eyes of Drosophila melanogaster using a single chimeric 264 kDa protein standard that covers, in total, 197 peptides from 43 proteins. Each protein was independently quantified with 2 to 4 proteotypic peptides with the coefficient of variation of less than 15 %, better than 1000-fold dynamic range and sub-femtomole sensitivity. We determined molar abundances and stoichiometric ratios of the components of the PT machinery and the rhabdomere, and how they are changing when rhabdomere morphogenesis is perturbed by genetic manipulation of the evolutionary conserved gene crumbs (crb).
Project description:Knowledge of the genetic mechanisms underlying among-individual variation in response to environmental variables or treatment is important in many research areas; for example, acquaintance of the set of causal genetic variants for drug responses could revolutionize the field of personalized medicine. We used Drosophila melanogaster to investigate the genetic signature underlying variability in response to methylphenidate (MPH), a drug used in treatment of ADHD. We exposed a wild type D. melanogaster population to MPH or a control treatment and observed an increase in locomotor activity in individuals exposed to MPH. Whole-genome transcriptomic analyses revealed that the behavioral response to MPH was associated with abundant gene expression alterations. To confirm these patterns in a different genetic background, and to further advance knowledge on the genetic signature of drug response variability, we used a system of sequenced inbred lines, the Drosophila Genetic Reference Panel. Utilizing an integrative genomic approach we incorporated the transcriptomic data as well as gene interactions into the genomic analyses, from which we identified putative candidate genes for drug response variability. We successfully validated 70% of the investigated putative candidate genes by gene expression knockdown. Furthermore, we showed that MPH has cross generational behavioral- and transcriptomic effects.
Project description:Environmental and simulation facility conditions can modulate a behavioral-driven altered gravity response of Drosophila imagoes transcriptome
Project description:Metabolites are active controllers of cellular physiology, but their role in complex behaviors is less clear. Here we report the metabolic changes that occur during the transition between hunger and satiety in Drosophila melanogaster. To analyze these data in the context of fruit fly metabolic networks, we developed Flyscape, an open-access tool. We show that in response to eating, metabolic profiles change in quick, but distinct ways in the heads and bodies. Consumption of a high sugar diet dulls the metabolic and behavioral differences between the fasted and fed state, and reshapes the way nutrients are utilized upon eating. Specifically, we found that high dietary sugar increases TCA cycle activity, alters neurochemicals, and depletes 1-carbon metabolism and brain health metabolites N-acetyl-aspartate and kynurenine. Together, our work identifies the metabolic transitions that occur during hunger and satiation, and provides a platform to study the role of metabolites and diet in complex behavior.