The foraging gene in Drosophila mediates metabolic as well as behavioral plasticity

ABSTRACT: 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

ORGANISM(S): Drosophila melanogaster

SUBMITTER: Clement Kent 

PROVIDER: E-GEOD-14371 | biostudies-arrayexpress |

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-arrayexpress