Developmental and transcriptomal responses to seasonal dietary shifts in the cactophilic Drosophila mojavensis of North America.

Drosophila mojavensis normally breeds in necrotic columnar cactus, but they also feed and breed in Opuntia fruit (prickly pear) which serves as a seasonal resource. The prickly pear fruits are much different chemically from cacti, mainly in their free sugars and lipid content, raising the question of the effects of this seasonal shift on fitness and on gene expression. Here we reared three isofemale strains of D. mojavensis collected from different parts of the species' range on semi-natural medium of either cactus or prickly pear fruit and measured the development time, survival, body weights and desiccation resistance. All these parameters were affected by diet and by interaction with strain and or sex. Interestingly, however, there appear to be tradeoffs: flies developed faster in prickly pear and the emerging adults were heavier, but those having grown in cactus were more resistant to desiccation. We also evaluated gene expression of emerging male and female adult flies using RNA-Seq. While more genes were down-regulated in prickly pear fruit than up-regulated in both sexes, the sexes did differ in expression patterns. The majority of the genes that were preferentially expressed comparing prickly pear fruit vs cactus underlie metabolism. Genes involved with carbohydrate and lipid metabolism, as well as with the amino acid serine, and their relationship to growth and development reflect the ways in which these dietary differences affect the flies.