Metabolic differences between tropical and temperate Drosophila species after cold-induced reproductive arrest

MENSCH JULIÁN; KREIMAN LUCAS; SCHILMAN PABLO; HASSON ESTEBAN; RENAULT DAVID; COLINET HERVE

Buenos Aires

Congreso; 8 International Symposium of Environmental Physiology of Ectotherms and Plants; 2019

The aim of this work is to investigate the metabolic signatures of cold acclimation in tropical and temperate cactophilic Drosophila from South America. To do so, we compare an array of metabolites expressed at the end of various thermal treatments, in order to correlate cold tolerance with particular metabolic signatures. We found that reproductively arrested females of temperate species accumulate proline and some polyols (e.g. glycerol), while tropical do not, showing clear interactive effects between biogoegraphic origin and reproductive state for these metabolites. Accordingly, reproductively arrested females of temperate species showed the lowest Ctmin and the fastest chill-coma recovery time. Other metabolites showed different patterns: carbohydrates such as glucose and gluconolactone increased in temperate species, both in mature and arrested females, while trehalose and glyceric acid increased in tropical ones. No clear-cut changes were observed for TCA cycle components, suggesting maintenance of metabolic homeostasis across species and treatments. Our results show that several sugars, polyols or free amino acids are species-specific players of cold acclimation in tropical and temperate species.