the effect of spaceflight on drosophila energy metabolism and gene expression.
- Paper number
IAC-13,A1,P,62.p1,x18495
- Author
Mr. Kanyan Xu, China
- Year
2013
- Abstract
The earth’s gravitational force is important for various physiological functions including metabolism. It is reported that space travellers usually experience a loss in weight and body mass, and such change is likely caused by a negative energy balance. However, Whether and how gravitational force affect animal metabilsm is still widely unknown. Here, we plan to address these issues using Drosophila melanogaster as a research model. We used China’s Shenzhou-9 spaceship to carry male Canton-S fruit flies. After 13-day space travel, most flies were killed by frozen in Dry ice and kept for metabolic and microarray analysis. A small portion of flies were kept in locomotor tubes to measure their activity, sleep behaior, and life span. We found the space-flown flies have similar body weight, locomnotor activity, and sleep pattern compared to the ground control after return to the earth. However, their Triglyceride (TAG) level was significantly lower, which means their lipid metabolic status has been changed by spaceflight process. They also have a relatively longer life span. In order to find the mechanism underneath the TAG change, next we will study our microarray result and hopefully can get important metabolic genes with significant expression level change after spaceflight. We wish we could find genes whichcan help us explain the lipid metabolism changes and provide a hypothesis on how microgravity affect Drosophila energy metabolism.
- Abstract document
- Manuscript document
(absent)