Exercise and/or Cold Exposure Alters the Gene Expression Profile in the Fat Body and Changes the Heart Function in Drosophila

Diet supplementation with egg yolk powder fattens the beetle Tribolium castaneum

Insects have become essential models in studying human metabolic diseases, mainly due to their low maintenance cost and available tools. Both mutations and modified diets induce metabolic states similar to human obesity and diabetes. Here, we explore the effect of a high-calorie, high-fat diet on the metabolism of the beetle Tribolium castaneum. Supplementation of the wheat flour diet with powdered egg yolk for 3 weeks increased the total triacylglycerol and accelerated larval development. In addition, this diet increased the triacylglycerol levels of adult beetles. However, this egg yolk supplementation did not alter the larvae's total glucose levels or lipogenic capacity and ATP citrate lyase activity. The diet also did not change the expression profile of several lipid and carbohydrate metabolism genes and insulin-like peptides. Thus, we conclude that the diet supplemented with egg yolk induces increased fat without causing diabetes phenotypes, as seen in other hypercaloric diets in insects.

Regular Exercise in Drosophila Prevents Age-Related Cardiac Dysfunction Caused by High Fat and Heart-Specific Knockdown of skd

Skuld (skd) is a subunit of the Mediator complex subunit complex. In the heart, skd controls systemic obesity, is involved in systemic energy metabolism, and is closely linked to cardiac function and aging. However, it is unclear whether the effect of cardiac skd on cardiac energy metabolism affects cardiac function. We found that cardiac-specific knockdown of skd showed impaired cardiac function, metabolic impairment, and premature aging. Drosophila was subjected to an exercise and high-fat diet (HFD) intervention to explore the effects of exercise on cardiac skd expression and cardiac function in HFD Drosophila. We found that Hand-Gal4>skd RNAi (KC) Drosophila had impaired cardiac function, metabolic impairment, and premature aging. Regular exercise significantly improved cardiac function and metabolism and delayed aging in HFD KC Drosophila. Thus, our study found that the effect of skd on cardiac energy metabolism in the heart affected cardiac function. Exercise may counteract age-related cardiac dysfunction and metabolic disturbances caused by HFD and heart-specific knockdown of skd. Skd may be a potential therapeutic target for heart disease.

Drosophila exercise, an emerging model bridging the fields of exercise and aging in human

Exercise is one of the most effective treatments for the diseases of aging. In recent years, a growing number of researchers have used Drosophila melanogaster to study the broad benefits of regular exercise in aging individuals. With the widespread use of Drosophila exercise models and the upgrading of the Drosophila exercise apparatus, we should carefully examine the differential contribution of regular exercise in the aging process to facilitate more detailed quantitative measurements and assessment of the exercise phenotype. In this paper, we review some of the resources available for Drosophila exercise models. The focus is on the impact of regular exercise or exercise adaptation in the aging process in Drosophila and highlights the great potential and current challenges faced by this model in the field of anti-aging research.