Abstract
The fruit fly Drosophila melanogaster has been increasingly recognized as an important model organism in nutrition research. In order to conduct nutritional studies in fruit flies, special attention should be given to the composition of the experimental diets. Besides complex diets, which are often based on maize, yeast, sucrose, and agar, Drosophila can be also fed chemically defined diets. These so-called holidic diets are standardized in terms of their macro- and micronutrient composition although the quantitative nutrient requirements of flies have yet not been fully established and warrant further investigations. For instance, only few studies address the fatty acid, vitamin, mineral, and trace element requirements of fruit flies. D. melanogaster may be also of interest in the field of nutritional medicine. Diet-induced diabetes and obesity models have been established, and in this context, often, the so-called high-fat and high-sugar diets are fed. However, the composition of these diets is not sufficiently defined and varies between studies. A consensus within the scientific community needs to be reached to standardize the exact composition of experimental complex and holidic diets for D. melanogaster in nutrition research. Since D. melanogaster is an established valuable model system for numerous human diseases, standardized diets are also a prerequisite to conduct diet-disease interaction studies. We suggest that a comprehensive approach, which combines deep phenotyping with disease-related Drosophila models under defined dietary conditions, might lead to the foundation of a so-called fly clinic.
Highlights
The quality of nutritional studies largely depends on the research question addressed, the experimental design, the statistical power, and the composition of the experimental diets
The fruit fly Drosophila melanogaster has been extensively used as a robust model organism in genetics
Experimental diets in Drosophila research Drosophila diets are often formulated on the basis of yeast, maize, sucrose, and agar [3, 4]
Summary
The quality of nutritional studies largely depends on the research question addressed, the experimental design, the statistical power, and the composition of the experimental diets. The fruit fly Drosophila melanogaster has been extensively used as a robust model organism in genetics, We point out that a standardized diet will be necessary to implement the fruit fly as a promising model organism in diet-disease interaction studies. The composition of “high-fat” or “high-sugar” diets is not sufficiently defined which again complicates comparison of data between different studies and laboratories.
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