Meeting Abstract

53.2  Jan. 6  Gene transcription during exposure to, and recovery from, cold and desiccation stress in Drosophila melanogaster SINCLAIR, Brent J.*; ROBERTS, Stephen P.; GIBBS, Allen G.; University of Western Ontario; University of Nevada – Las Vegas; University of Nevada – Las Vegas bsincla7@uwo.ca

Tolerance to low temperature and desiccation are often thought to be linked in insects. However, while the responses to acclimation or exposure to these stresses has been oft-investigated, the processes that occur during recovery have received much less attention. We exposed adult Drosophila melanogaster to cold or desiccation, and examined the expression of several candidate genes during both exposure and recovery. We found that Frost, which has been implicated in responses to cold is, in fact, only expressed during recovery from cold, but that it is slightly upregulated during desiccation exposure. We found that both desiccation and starvation elicited increased expression of the senescence-related gene smp-30. These results will be discussed in the context of other studies that have purported to examine exposure to stress, but may be integrating recovery responses as well. This study highlights the importance of carefully controlling both exposure and recovery conditions, particularly in low temperature studies of insects.