The trend of courtship and mating behavior of Drosophila melanogaster fitT15 mutants based on caloric restriction

Abstract

The nutrients gleaned from an organism's diet provide the metabolic energy necessary for normal physiological function. If an organism is unable to consume the required nutrients, then its normal behavior and metabolic activity will be impaired. This study employs Drosophila melanogaster as a model to study the effect of diet restriction on courtship and mating behaviors. To investigate the proposed link between diet and reproduction, samples of male and female fitT15 (female-specific independent of transformer) Drosophila were subjected to two diets: a 100% Standard diet and a 50% Standard diet containing indigestible cellulose. Previous work has shown that these null fit mutants have inappropriate male courtship behavior; however, effects of the mutation for female Drosophila are not currently known. Mutant males and females fed one diet were paired with Canton-S flies fed the 100% Standard diet. Reproductive capabilities were assayed in terms of courtship latency, courtship index, and mating latency. Theoretically, flies on the restricted diet were expected to exhibit higher courtship and mating latencies and lower courtship indices. As of yet, significant differences between these times for the diets have not been demonstrated; however, experimental female flies on the 50% diet have exhibited a trend toward higher courtship and mating latencies when compared to the 100% control specimens. In general, it is possible that diet restriction may have a physiological effect on reproduction.