973C Poster - 15. Models of human disease
Saturday April 09, 1:30 PM - 3:30 PM

Authors:
Tolulope Kolapo ¹; Jordan Albrecht ²; Michelle Tan ³; Mckenzie Chamberlain ⁴; Annie Backlund ⁵; Alyssa Koehler ⁶; Sean Shelley Tremblay ⁷

Affiliations:
1) The University of Alabama, Tuscaloosa, AL; 2) The University of Alabama, Tuscaloosa, AL; 3) The University of Alabama, Tuscaloosa, AL; 4) The University of Alabama, Tuscaloosa, AL; 5) The University of Alabama, Tuscaloosa, AL; 6) The University of Alabama, Tuscaloosa, AL; 7) The University of Alabama, Tuscaloosa, AL

Keywords:
p. metabolic disorders; a. stress responses

Exercise is a cost effective intervention strategy that has been recognized to play a role in prevention and corrective response to Metabolic Syndrome (MetS). MetS is a combination of metabolic disorders that are increasingly prevalent in Western cultures. Metabolic disorders associated with MetS include elevated blood pressure, increased blood-sugar levels, abnormal cholesterol and increased triglyceride concentrations. To determine the effect of exercise on obesity and other metabolic disorders, daily exercise regimes can be simulated using Drosophila melanogaster. The negative geotaxis; an innate escape response where flies ascend the wall of a cylinder when tapped to the bottom is a characteristic climbing tendency of the fruit fly that can be taken advantage of to induce exercise. The TreadWheel and Power Tower are two apparatuses that have been used to induce exercise in flies under controlled settings. For both pieces of equipment, significant effects of exercise on diet, weight, climbing ability, aging and other phenotypes have been reported in fruit flies. Although both machines allow for regulated induction of exercise, each one provides its own set of distinct advantages and limitations. Currently, no direct comparison of the effectiveness of the two pieces of equipment has been conducted. It is therefore unclear whether the two devices differ in their ability to induce exercise or in their impact on metabolic phenotypes. Our project compares stress levels and metabolic response induced in flies by the two apparatuses, and also determines the most effective apparatus to achieve optimum exercise in adult flies by evaluating genetic and sex-specific interactions driving variation in metabolic phenotypes. This study determines the response of seven wild derived genetic lines from the Drosophila Genetic Reference Panel to exercise treatment on both apparatuses.Fitness traits such as longevity, fecundity and climbing speed are measured. Our results show that flies exercised on both apparatuses varied in their response by genotypes and sex, and flies exercised on the Treadwheel lived longer after exercise than flies exercised on the Power Tower.