Phenotypic coupling of sleep and starvation resistance evolves in D. melanogaster.

ABSTRACT:

Background

One hypothesis for the function of sleep is that it serves as a mechanism to conserve energy. Recent studies have suggested that increased sleep can be an adaptive mechanism to improve survival under food deprivation in Drosophila melanogaster. To test the generality of this hypothesis, we compared sleep and its plastic response to starvation in a temperate and tropical population of Drosophila melanogaster.

Results

We found that flies from the temperate population were more starvation resistant, and hypothesized that they would engage in behaviors that are considered to conserve energy, including increased sleep and reduced movement. Surprisingly, temperate flies slept less and moved more when they were awake compared to tropical flies, both under fed and starved

SUBMITTER: Sarikaya DP 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC7507639 | biostudies-literature | 2020 Sep

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature