Meeting Abstract

78.2  Tuesday, Jan. 6  Plasticity in chilling survival of Drosophila melanogaster larvae SINCLAIR, BJ*; RAJAMOHAN, A; Univ. Western Ontario bsincla7@uwo.ca

The majority of insects die of chilling injuries unrelated to ice formation, but the processes and plasticity of these injuries are not well-understood. We have been exploring the roles of genetic background, development, dietary manipulation, acclimation, hardening pre-treatments and recovery conditions to build a comprehensive model of the factors maximising chilling survival of Drosophila melanogaster larvae. Both genetic background and developmental stage significantly influence chilling tolerance, and interact with long-term acclimation and short-term hardening to influence chilling survival. Certain dietary manipulations can significantly improve cold tolerance, but acclimation is not as effective as short-term hardening at improving cold survival. Combinations of high and low temperature pre-exposure are highly effective at improving cold survival, which hints at mechanisms of chilling injury. Surprisingly, survival of chilling exposure is not enhanced by manipulating recovery conditions.