A comparison of feeding rate methods in Drosophila melanogaster indicates that consumption is influenced by body size
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2016
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Daya, Payal D., Jeff Leips and Mary Durham. “A comparison of feeding rate methods in Drosophila melanogaster indicates that consumption is influenced by body size.” Drosophila Information Service 99 (December 2016): 72-78. https://www.ou.edu/journals/dis/DIS99/Technique%20notes/Daya%20et%20al%20Pg%2072.pdf
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Abstract
Dietary restriction, a decrease in nutrient intake without malnutrition, has been shown to increase life
span in many species and is highly linked to feeding behavior. Although Drosophila melanogaster is an
excellent model organism to study the effects of dietary restriction on life span and associated traits, measuring
feeding rate in this organism is particularly challenging. Several methods have been used to estimate feeding
rate in Drosophila melanogaster, but it remains unclear which method is most precise. We examined the
effectiveness of two popular methods that label media with blue dye or radioactive isotopes to quantify food
uptake. We found that the radioactive label assay was more precise than the blue dye assay and likely most
useful for comparing the effects of different treatments (genotypes, diets) on feeding rates. We found that the
relationship between feeding rate and dietary treatment depends on the size of the fly, so we also suggest
incorporating body size as a covariate in data analysis to improve the accuracy of feeding rate estimates.