The Effect of Whey Protein on the Cold Resistance in Drosophila Melanogaster
Author : Harshitha S, Manaswini D Kashyap, Darshini M, Naveenashree N, Purushotham MR, Darshan BK and Krishna MS
Abstract :
Stress resistance in an organism may be influenced by various factors including morphological, physiological and behavioural changes. Resistance to stress is influenced by quality and quantity of nutrition present in diet. The current study demonstrates the effect of the Whey protein on the cold resistance in Drosophila melanogaster which is cultured in Wheat cream agar media, Mixed media and Whey protein media. The results suggest that, flies fed with Whey protein media had greater cold resistance than Wheat cream agar and mixed media. This shows that Whey protein provides sufficient nutrition to withstand cold. This study also shows that females (virgin and mated) have more starvation resistance than that of males (virgin and mated) in all the diets. Further, both mated male and female flies had greater cold resistance than those of unmated flies. Thus, Whey protein increases cold resistance in D. melanogaster.
Keywords :
Diet, cold resistance, Drosophila melanogaster, Whey protein, mated, unmated
