The impact of early life malnutrition on feeding behavior in Drosophila melanogaster

Abstract

Early-life malnourishment has been demonstrated to impact the growth and development of various species, including humans, resulting in both phenotypic and metabolic changes that can adversely affect an organism's quality of life and render them more vulnerable to feeding-related disorders. Therefore, it is crucial to comprehend the influence of early-life malnourishment on an organism's feeding behavior. In our investigation, we examined the consequences of early-life starvation on feeding behavior. We induced early-life starvation in flies by limiting the diet of third instar larvae to a 100 mM sucrose agar. We observed that these flies consumed less food compared to control flies; however, their food intake appeared to be regulated by their body weight, as there was no alteration in consumption when normalized by body weight. Through olfactory-associated conditioning, we discovered that the starved flies exhibited reduced memory reinforced by 500 mM sucrose. Furthermore, we observed that these early-life starved flies displayed increased susceptibility to reduced sensitivity to sweet taste when reared on high glucose concentrations. Based on our preliminary findings, we speculate that early-life starved flies may be more prone to exhibiting altered behavior when exposed to unconventional diets. Nevertheless, further experiments are required to elucidate the molecular and neural mechanisms underlying the modified feeding behavior induced by early-life starvation.