Genetic variation in ethanol tolerance in the fruit fly Drosophila melanogaster

Alexus Hansen, Sam Kline Author

04/05/2021 Added

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Effects of varying ethanol concentration on D. melanogaster survival and tolerance.

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[00:00:02.210]Hi. My name is Sam Klein. And my name is Alexus Hansen.
[00:00:06.356]We did research on the genetic variation and ethanol tolerance in the fruit fly Drosophila melanogaster.
[00:00:13.862]The environment to which animals live is very diverse and toxins may alter the lifestyle of certain organisms.
[00:00:20.120]Although toxins are found in every environment, the type of toxins and the concentration very across habitats
[00:00:26.233]Drosophila melanogaster, otherwise known as the common fruit fly is a model organism that can be found in every single continent across the world
[00:00:34.974]these flies are known to consume a large portion of fruit in their diet
[00:00:39.277]And these fruits contain varying amounts of ethanol.
[00:00:44.486]This photo depicts Drosophila melanogaster larvae before they pupate.
[00:00:50.902]Since these flies can be found in habitats all around the world, they're exposed to many different environmental toxins.
[00:00:57.835]Ethanol a natural toxin can be used by the fly as a source of energy at low concentrations, depending on geographical location
[00:01:05.450]some flies naturally feed on fruits that have higher concentrations of ethanol than others.
[00:01:10.565]The purpose of this study is to determine whether tolerance to ethanol is correlated to ethanol prevalence.
[00:01:18.670]To do this, six populations of Drosophila melanogaster were collected from paired orchards and vineyards in Indiana
[00:01:25.650]due to their large difference in ethanol concentration found inside the food
[00:01:30.896]from these populations 10 isofemale lines were generated from each population.
[00:01:37.699]Here are some pictures of the locations that we took the flies from.
[00:01:43.231]On the left we have an orchard and on the right we have a vineyard with apples and grapes, respectively
[00:01:50.040]we predicted that since at vineyards they typically produce alcoholic drinks
[00:01:55.207]that we expected more ethanol in this environment and also predicted that the flies at the vineyards would have a higher tolerance tolerance for ethanol.
[00:02:05.798]We subjected the different populations of flies to different concentrations of ethanol and measured
[00:02:11.368]their development time, LD 50, and pupation height
[00:02:14.995]LD 50 is the amount of substance required to kill 50% of the test population, and it also represents our survival ratio
[00:02:25.268]Here in this in this graph, it shows the lowest and highest LD 50s that we collected so far.
[00:02:31.588]They help us visualize the LD 50s which again like Sam said, are the concentrations at which 50% of the flies are killed.
[00:02:39.243]We collected data for different ethanol concentrations and represent the 50% survival mark with the red line across the graphs.
[00:02:46.841]So here in the y axis the proportion dead. And on x axis, the percent ethanol
[00:02:53.490]And as this graph on the left shows the LD 50 for this population was at the 6%, whereas this one, we didn't have it in any of our treatments.
[00:03:03.672]So this is saying that the left graph's population's ethanol tolerance is lower than the graph on the right.
[00:03:16.290]And this graph here shows the six different populations we have.
[00:03:21.343]And then, where they were from so we have three populations from an orchard and three populations from a winery
[00:03:27.928]and then on the x axis, or on the y axis, you can see the LD 50.
[00:03:32.072]If you compare the three populations from the orchard to the three populations in the winery, you'll see that there's no significant difference in the LD 50 between the different populations.
[00:03:43.762]So, our preliminary data shows that while the populations vary in ethanol tolerance.
[00:03:49.408]There is no difference in ethanol tolerance between the populations from the orchard versus the winery.
[00:03:58.296]This research is one step closer to determining how a variety of toxins affect Drosophila melonogaster.
[00:04:05.215]But another question we would like to investigate in the future is whether the variation and ethanol tolerance maps onto the tolerance of other toxins.
[00:04:13.415]We would like to give a special thanks to Dr. Megan Kobiela, Dr. Kristi Montooth, and the UCARE program
[00:04:19.308]for providing us with this research opportunity.
[00:04:22.428]Dr. Kobiela allowed us to collaborate with her on her research and helped us throughout the process.
[00:04:28.098]Dr. Montooth welcomed us into her lab and supported our research endeavors.
[00:04:31.968]And UCARE helped fund our project.

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Genetic variation in ethanol tolerance in the fruit fly Drosophila melanogaster

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