The Drosophila foraging gene mediates adult plasticity and gene-environment interactions in behaviour, metabolites, and gene expression in response to food deprivation.

TitleThe Drosophila foraging gene mediates adult plasticity and gene-environment interactions in behaviour, metabolites, and gene expression in response to food deprivation.
Publication TypeJournal Article
Year of Publication2009
AuthorsKent CF, Daskalchuk T, Cook L, Sokolowski MB, Greenspan RJ
JournalPLoS Genet
Volume5
Issue8
Paginatione1000609
Date Published2009 Aug
ISSN1553-7404
KeywordsAnimals, Carbohydrate Metabolism, Cyclic GMP-Dependent Protein Kinases, Drosophila melanogaster, Drosophila Proteins, Ecosystem, Fats, Food Deprivation, Gene Expression, Signal Transduction
Abstract

Nutrition is known to interact with genotype in human metabolic syndromes, obesity, and diabetes, and also in Drosophila metabolism. Plasticity in metabolic responses, such as changes in body fat or blood sugar in response to changes in dietary alterations, may also be affected by genotype. Here we show that variants of the foraging (for) gene in Drosophila melanogaster affect the response to food deprivation in a large suite of adult phenotypes by measuring gene by environment interactions (GEI) in a suite of food-related traits. for affects body fat, carbohydrates, food-leaving behavior, metabolite, and gene expression levels in response to food deprivation. This results in broad patterns of metabolic, genomic, and behavioral gene by environment interactions (GEI), in part by interaction with the insulin signaling pathway. Our results show that a single gene that varies in nature can have far reaching effects on behavior and metabolism by acting through multiple other genes and pathways.

DOI10.1371/journal.pgen.1000609
Alternate JournalPLoS Genet.
PubMed ID19696884
PubMed Central IDPMC2720453
Grant ListDK70141-2 / DK / NIDDK NIH HHS / United States
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