The Effect of Starvation on Glucose Levels in Wild Type Drosophila and Circadian Rhythm Mutants
Department
Biological Sciences
Major
Biology
Research Advisor
Thimgan, Matthew S.
Advisor's Department
Biological Sciences
Funding Source
Opportunities for Undergraduate Research (OURE)
Abstract
Individuals with Night Eating Syndrome wake up in the middle of the night and can’t fall asleep until they’ve eaten something. We hypothesized that metabolic state may underlie this change in sleep and wake. Starvation results in waking in Drosophila and likely affects glucose levels in Drosophila, and those effects may be different in flies with normal circadian rhythms versus flies without. We investigated this relationship by starving each type of fly for different periods of time between 4 and 29 hours and then measuring all sources of glucose, including trehalose and glycogen. The results have shown that in wild type flies, glucose levels decrease with starvation until about 24 hours, where they increase due to utilization of glycogen. In the mutants, glucose levels stay constant throughout starvation. Therefore, we concluded that there is a clear relationship in wild type flies, and that the circadian rhythm mutation disrupts this relationship.
Biography
Danielle Meyer is an undergraduate student at Missouri University of Science and Technology. She is majoring in biology and minoring in chemistry and psychology. Danielle is primarily interested in research that involves aspects of both biology and psychology, such as sleep. She has been working in Dr. Thimgan’s Sleep Biology lab for approximately nine months.
Research Category
Sciences
Presentation Type
Poster Presentation
Document Type
Poster
Location
Upper Atrium/Hall
Presentation Date
16 Apr 2014, 9:00 am - 11:45 am
The Effect of Starvation on Glucose Levels in Wild Type Drosophila and Circadian Rhythm Mutants
Upper Atrium/Hall
Individuals with Night Eating Syndrome wake up in the middle of the night and can’t fall asleep until they’ve eaten something. We hypothesized that metabolic state may underlie this change in sleep and wake. Starvation results in waking in Drosophila and likely affects glucose levels in Drosophila, and those effects may be different in flies with normal circadian rhythms versus flies without. We investigated this relationship by starving each type of fly for different periods of time between 4 and 29 hours and then measuring all sources of glucose, including trehalose and glycogen. The results have shown that in wild type flies, glucose levels decrease with starvation until about 24 hours, where they increase due to utilization of glycogen. In the mutants, glucose levels stay constant throughout starvation. Therefore, we concluded that there is a clear relationship in wild type flies, and that the circadian rhythm mutation disrupts this relationship.
