title: Fitness components of Drosophila melanogaster developed on a standard laboratory diet or a typical natural food source.
abstract: Drosophila melanogaster is often used as a model organism in evolutionary biology and ecophysiology to study evolutionary processes and their physiological mechanisms. Diets used to feed Drosophila cultures differ between laboratories and are often nutritious and distinct from food sources in the natural habitat. Here we rear D. melanogaster on a standard diet used in our laboratory and a field diet composed of decomposing apples collected in the field. Flies developed on these two diet compositions are tested for heat, cold, desiccation, and starvation resistance as well as developmental time, dry body mass and fat percentage. The nutritional compositions of the standard and field diets were analyzed, and discussed in relation to the phenotypic observations. Results showed marked differences in phenotype of flies from the two types of diets. Flies reared on the field diet are more starvation resistant and they are smaller, leaner, and have lower heat resistance compared to flies reared on the standard diet. Sex specific effects of diet type are observed for several of the investigated traits and the strong sexual dimorphism usually observed in desiccation resistance in D. melanogaster disappeared when rearing the flies on the field diet. Based on our results we conclude that care should be taken in extrapolating results from one type of diet to another and especially from laboratory to field diets.
authors.affiliation: Department of Chemistry and Bioscience, Section of Biology and Environmental Science, Aalborg University, Aalborg East, DK-9220, Denmark. tnk@bio.aau.dk.
authors.forename: Torsten Nygaard
authors.initials: TN
authors.lastname: Kristensen
authors.affiliation: Department of Chemistry and Bioscience, Section of Biology and Environmental Science, Aalborg University, Aalborg East, DK-9220, Denmark.
authors.forename: Astrid Kallestrup
authors.initials: AK
authors.lastname: Henningsen
authors.affiliation: Department of Chemistry and Bioscience, Section of Biology and Environmental Science, Aalborg University, Aalborg East, DK-9220, Denmark.
authors.forename: Christian
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Aastrup
authors.affiliation: Department of Chemistry and Bioscience, Section of Biology and Environmental Science, Aalborg University, Aalborg East, DK-9220, Denmark.
authors.forename: Mads
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Bech-Hansen
authors.affiliation: Department of Chemistry and Bioscience, Section of Biology and Environmental Science, Aalborg University, Aalborg East, DK-9220, Denmark.
authors.forename: Lise B Hoberg
authors.initials: LB
authors.lastname: Bjerre
authors.affiliation: Department of Chemistry and Bioscience, Section of Biology and Environmental Science, Aalborg University, Aalborg East, DK-9220, Denmark.
authors.forename: Benjamin
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Carlsen
authors.affiliation: Department of Chemistry and Bioscience, Section of Biology and Environmental Science, Aalborg University, Aalborg East, DK-9220, Denmark.
authors.forename: Marie
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Hagstrup
authors.affiliation: Department of Chemistry and Bioscience, Section of Biology and Environmental Science, Aalborg University, Aalborg East, DK-9220, Denmark.
authors.forename: Sofie Graarup
authors.initials: SG
authors.lastname: Jensen
authors.affiliation: Department of Chemistry and Bioscience, Section of Biology and Environmental Science, Aalborg University, Aalborg East, DK-9220, Denmark.
authors.forename: Pernille
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Karlsen
authors.affiliation: Department of Chemistry and Bioscience, Section of Biology and Environmental Science, Aalborg University, Aalborg East, DK-9220, Denmark.
authors.forename: Line
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Kristensen
authors.affiliation: Department of Chemistry and Bioscience, Section of Biology and Environmental Science, Aalborg University, Aalborg East, DK-9220, Denmark.
authors.forename: Cecillie
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Lundsgaard
authors.affiliation: Department of Chemistry and Bioscience, Section of Biology and Environmental Science, Aalborg University, Aalborg East, DK-9220, Denmark.
authors.forename: Tine
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Møller
authors.affiliation: Department of Chemistry and Bioscience, Section of Biology and Environmental Science, Aalborg University, Aalborg East, DK-9220, Denmark.
authors.forename: Lise D
authors.initials: LD
authors.lastname: Nielsen
authors.affiliation: Department of Chemistry and Bioscience, Section of Biology and Environmental Science, Aalborg University, Aalborg East, DK-9220, Denmark.
authors.forename: Camilla
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Starcke
authors.affiliation: Department of Chemistry and Bioscience, Section of Biology and Environmental Science, Aalborg University, Aalborg East, DK-9220, Denmark.
authors.forename: Christine Riisager
authors.initials: CR
authors.lastname: Sørensen
authors.affiliation: Department of Bioscience, Aarhus University, Aarhus C, DK-8000, Denmark.
authors.forename: Mads Fristrup
authors.initials: MF
authors.lastname: Schou
mesh_terms: D000273:Adipose Tissue; D000821:Animal Feed; D000818:Animals; D001835:Body Weight; D003681:Dehydration; D004331:Drosophila melanogaster / Q000254:growth & development / Q000502:physiology*; D005260:Female; D008297:Male; D027845:Malus; D013217:Starvation / Q000378:metabolism; D013696:Temperature
keywords: diet; field fitness; life-history traits; nutrition; stress resistance