Investigating The Drosophila Melanogaster Model Of High-Sucrose Diet Induced Diabetic-Like Phenotypes And Oxidative Stress

Abstract

Diet, particularly the quantity of sugar consumed, partly influences the organism's development and longevity. In this study, high-sucrose diets (HSD) were constructed on a fruit fly model to observe adverse cues on the organism’s development and lifespan, including phenotypic changes related to diabetes and oxidative stress. High-sucrose diet (30% and 45%) slowed larval and adult fly development, along with a sharp decrease in the number of larvae pupating and hatching flies. Metabolic parameters such as weight and size of all three morphologies also decreased with increasing sucrose concentration in the diet. Hemolymph glucose concentration in adult flies showed reduction during 7 days of HSD feeding but increased after a 14-day period of exposure. The effect of a high sucrose diet was also assessed using sex differences, weight and glucose concentration investigations revealed that males were better able to adapt. However, biomarkers demonstrated that males were more likely to develop oxidative stress in adult flies given HSD for 14 days. Taken together, these results demonstrated that the consumption of a high-sucrose diet developed detrimental effects on the development and metabolic regulations in Drosophila melanogaster. This study might pave the way for future research into the mechanisms of diet-induced metabolic disorders.