Meeting Abstract
Cold stress is detrimental to insect fitness and has driven the evolution of coping mechanisms for low temperature stressors. Ecological factors including seasonal shifts in day length and temperature influence an insect’s cold tolerance, and recent studies have suggested that diet may also impact insect cold tolerance. However, the components of an insect’s diet that are most important for cold tolerance, and how their effects differ among genetically distinct individuals, remain unclear. In this study we determine which dietary component are crucial to insect cold tolerances using the fruit fly, Drosophila melanogaster. Specifically, we examine the impact of four commonly used fly foods on: 1) insect cold tolerance, 2) reproduction, and 3) the ability to maintain reproduction after cold stress. We selected six, distinct isogenic fly lines which vary in basal cold tolerance and reared them on four standard diets that vary in their nutritional content. We then measured cold shock survival, total reproductive output, and reproductive output following cold exposure. Current results show that nutrition significantly influences cold tolerance, and that these dietary effects vary by genotype. In ongoing experiments, we are identifying whether diet affects reproduction and the protective effects of diet on reproduction following cold stress. Ultimately, we seek to understand the extent to which diet influences fitness-relevant traits like cold tolerance and the importance of diet for the evolution of these fitness-related traits. Practically, our results indicate that diet selection is an important consideration when designing a cold tolerance experiment.
