Altered regulation of sleep and feeding contributes to starvation resistance in Drosophila melanogaster.

ABSTRACT: Animals respond to changes in food availability by adjusting sleep and foraging strategies to optimize their fitness. Wild populations of the fruit fly, Drosophila melanogaster, display highly variable levels of starvation resistance that are dependent on geographic location, food availability and evolutionary history. How behaviors that include sleep and feeding vary in Drosophila with increased starvation resistance is unclear. We have generated starvation-resistant flies through experimental evolution to investigate the relationship between foraging behaviors and starvation resistance. Outbred populations of D. melanogaster were selected for starvation resistance over 60 generations. This selection process resulted in flies with a threefold increase in total lipids that survive up to 18

SUBMITTER: Masek P 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4148190 | biostudies-literature | 2014 Sep

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature