Drosophila Melanogaster’de Lokomotor Aktiviteyle Açlık Direnci Arasındaki İlişkinin Araştırılması

Abstract

This thesis aims to investigate the relationship between locomotor behavior and starvation resistance on the basis of Drosophila melanogaster genes. Until now, the relationship between locomotor behavior and starvation resistance has been examined in separate studies through post-hunger foraging behavior related hyperactivity or on the basis of individual genes. In this context, there are no studies that address the two characteristics at the same time and focus on the relationship between them. The 31 genes used in the study were the candidate genes that were previously found to interact with the parkin gene in genome-wide association studies (GWAS). The method used in locomotor behavior analysis is the startle response phenotype. The startle response phenotype model is a fairly common method that is used in terms of generating sudden responses in the case of stress and representing the relationship between brain-gene-behavior. The second experimental step of the study, the starvation resistance experiments, were based on the individual's time of death resulting from acute hunger. In both experimental designs, three (0, 15, 30 days) age groups were created to evaluate male and female individuals separately, to observe the varying responses of phenotypic scores depending on age and sex. The basic method used in the thesis is based on the differentiation of the response of a mutant lineage to two experiments in comparison with the control. For both experiments, multi way analyses of variance (ANOVA) were performed separately between the mutant lineage and control lineage. After variance analyses, post-hoc analyses were performed using the Dunnett Test according to age and sex. The Dunnett Test was employed to examine the difference between mutant lineage and control lineage separately on the bases of sex and age. 14 of the 31 candidate genes differed from control in both locomotor behavioral experiments and starvation resistance experiments, including the different sex and age groups. All mutant lineages that differed in locomotor behavioral experiments presented low scores than control, and 14 mutant lineages, excluding the rad gene, lived less than the contrrol group in starvation resistance experiments. Of the 14 differentiated genes, 12 are involved in anatomical structure development and 5 are directly involved in locomotion. Biological processes, molecular functions and human orthologists of 14 genes were investigated and clues were found about the relationship between starvation resistance and locomotor behavior. The study expands the knowledge that exists on the gene basis for both characters, and also points to important aspects regarding the relationship between the two characters.