Effects of Caffeine on Starvation Resistance of Mated and Unmated Males and Females of Drosophila melanogaster
Author : Neha HK, Chandana R, Prajwal, Mamatha M, Sowndarya SC and Krishna MS
Abstract :
Drosophila melanogaster is a model organism, researches often asses’ traits such as starvation resistance. Dietary factors are one of the significant external environment elements that impact starvation resistance. Melanogaster was cultured on wheat cream agar, 2.5g caffeine, 5g caffeine and 10g of caffeine. This experiment was carried out to determine the effects of caffeine on starvation resistance. The results showed that flies that were given 10g 0f caffeine had greeter starvation resistance compared to flies that were given caffeine 0f 2.5g and 5g of caffeine which had an average starvation resistance whereas flies that were reared on wheat cream agar media showed the least starvation resistance. The present study also reveals that unmated males were more starvation resistant than unmated females on these three diets. In addition, mated females and unmated females had variation in starvation resistance, however, in males we found variation in starvation resistance between mated males and unmated males, unmated males were more starvation resistant, unmated females were also more starvation resistance when compared to mated females, unmated males were more resistant than unmated females, mated females were more resistant than mated males.
This study suggests that supplementation of caffeine along with the wheat cream agar in the diet increases starvation resistance in D.melanogater, further starvation resistance increases with increasing concentration of caffeine. Furthermore among unmated flies, males were significantly greater resistance to starvation compared to females. On the other hand among mated flies, females were significantly greater resistance to starvation compared to males.
Keywords :
Starvation resistance, caffeine, drosophila melanogaster, mating status, sex differences.
