Preference and detrimental effects of high fat, sugar, and salt diet in wild‐caught Drosophila simulans are reversed by flight exercise

Abstract

Drosophila simulans identification. We thank undergraduate students Damani Fitzgerald, Aaron Johnson, Imani Lowery, and Angela Sehres for technical assistance. This study was supported in parts by NIH R01 DK096907 (PDN), NIH-NIGMS (KMB), and R15ES029673 (AKM).

Drosophila melanogaster as a Model Organism for Obesity and Type-2 Diabetes Mellitus by Applying High-Sugar and High-Fat Diets

“…Previous investigations point to (a) differences in reproductive gene responses mediated by the classical nutrient-sensing pathway IIS/TOR [ 22 ] and (b) sexual dimorphism in the intestinal tract [ 23 ] as the main factors influencing the adaptive responses of D. melanogaster to the dietary environment. Accordingly, recent studies revealed mated females as more sensitive than males to HSD and HFD, suggesting higher intestinal stem cell proliferation in mated females as a responsible factor in reducing the lifespan and increasing nutrient absorption [ 18 , 19 , 23 , 24 , 25 ]. Undoubtedly, adaptation to reproductive functions is the main cause of sex differences, as carbohydrates are the source of energy that males need for mating, while females mainly invest in proteins for providing eggs [ 21 , 26 ].…”

Sexual Dimorphism in Metabolic Responses to Western Diet in Drosophila melanogaster

“…Studies using western diets as obesogenic diets are scarce. One study challenged male and female wild-caught Drosophila simulans with a diet supplemented with sugar, fat, and salt and evaluated the sexually dimorphic effect on fly activity, food preference, and oviposition preference [ 19 ]. The authors observed that the western diet strongly reduced lifespan, locomotor function, sleep, reproduction, and mitochondrial function and that exercise can partially rescue lethality and locomotor function.…”

“…The authors observed that the western diet strongly reduced lifespan, locomotor function, sleep, reproduction, and mitochondrial function and that exercise can partially rescue lethality and locomotor function. The observed decreased longevity of flies on the western diet could, however, be the result of osmotic stress, since the addition of salt would increase the osmolarity of the food [ 19 ]. To ascertain that our observations in flies on western diets were the result of metabolic challenges, rather than osmotic challenges [ 14 ], we showed that although female flies did lose weight on fat, sugar, and western diets compared to female flies on the CD, the differences between wet and dry weight were not significantly different in flies on the diets compared to under control conditions.…”

“…Other studies use adult flies reared under standard conditions and expose them for a specific amount of time to HSDs [ 7 , 14 ] or HFDs [ 8 , 15 , 16 , 17 , 18 ]. Few studies expose flies to western diets, combining both sugar and fat and even salt [ 19 ]. Moreover, most obesogenic diets are often supplemented with very high concentrations of sugar (30%) [ 6 , 7 , 20 , 21 ] or fat (20–30%) [ 8 , 9 , 22 ].…”

What You Eat Matters: Nutrient Inputs Alter the Metabolism and Neuropeptide Expression in Egyptian Cotton Leaf Worm, Spodoptera littoralis (Lepidoptera: Noctuidae)

“…As seen with third instar larvae here, HFD-induced TG increase does not necessarily have to lead to an increase in weight or size as was reported for M . sexta larvae ( Cambron et al, 2019 ) or D. simulans flies ( Murashov et al, 2020 ). On the other hand, HSD-induced TG levels have been reported in Drosophila adults ( Na et al, 2013 ; Rovenko et al, 2015a ; May et al, 2019 ; Rani et al, 2020 ) and larvae ( Musselman et al, 2011 , 2019 ; Pasco and Léopold, 2012 ) and in Ae.…”