Details

Autor(en) / Beteiligte

• Krama, Tatjana
• Bahhir, Diana
• Ots, Liina
• Popovs, Sergejs
• Bartkevičs, Vadims
• Pugajeva, Iveta
• Krams, Ronalds
• Merivee, Enno
• Must, Anne
• Rantala, Markus J
• Krams, Indrikis
• Jõers, Priit

Titel

A diabetes-like biochemical and behavioural phenotype of Drosophila induced by predator stress

Ist Teil von

• Proceedings of the Royal Society. B, Biological sciences, 2023-07, Vol.290 (2002), p.20230442-20230442

Ort / Verlag

England: The Royal Society

Erscheinungsjahr

2023

Quelle

MEDLINE

Beschreibungen/Notizen

• Predation can have both lethal and non-lethal effects on prey. The non-lethal effects of predation can instil changes in prey life history, behaviour, morphology and physiology, causing adaptive evolution. The chronic stress caused by sustained predation on prey is comparable to chronic stress conditions in humans. Conditions like anxiety, depression, and post-traumatic stress syndrome have also been implicated in the development of metabolic disorders such as obesity and diabetes. In this study, we found that predator stress induced during larval development in fruit flies impairs carbohydrate metabolism by systemic inhibition of Akt protein kinase, which is a central regulator of glucose uptake. However, grown with predators survived better under direct spider predation in the adult phase. Administration of metformin and 5-hydroxytryptophan (5-HTP), a precursor of the neurotransmitter serotonin, reversed these effects. Our results demonstrate a direct link between predator stress and metabolic impairment, suggesting that a diabetes-like biochemical phenotype may be adaptive in terms of survival and reproductive success. We provide a novel animal model to explore the mechanisms responsible for the onset of these metabolic disorders, which are highly prevalent in human populations.