Factors conducive to increased protein feeding by the blowfly Phormia regina

Abstract

ABSTRACT. Each period of elevated protein consumption by Phormia regina was associated with some recognizable physiological event that requires protein synthesis (e.g. tanning, adult fat body development, vitellogenesis). Injecting cycloheximide to inhibit protein synthesis prior to the onset of such events delayed the events and also the development of the associated periods of protein hunger. Injecting cycloheximide after a known period of protein synthesis had occurred, however, did not postpone the normally associated protein hunger even while the inhibitor was fully active. The findings conform to a hypothesis that an unidentified deficit, created by protein synthesis, underlies the tendency by Phormia to increase its ingestion of proteinaceous materials. The effects which different hormones have on protein hunger are evidently indirect results of their control of different periods of protein synthesis.