Abstract
The cuticle of all insects is covered with hydrocarbons which have multiple functions. Cuticular hydrocarbons (CHCs) basically serve to protect insects against environmental harm and reduce dehydration. In many species, some CHCs also act as pheromones. CHCs have been intensively studied in Drosophila species and more especially in D. melanogaster. In this species, flies produce about 40 CHCs forming a complex sex- and species-specific bouquet. The quantitative and qualitative pattern of the CHC bouquet was characterized during the first days of adult life but remains unexplored in aging flies. Here, we characterized CHCs during the whole—or a large period of—adult life in males and females of several wild type and transgenic lines. Both types of lines included standard and variant CHC profiles. Some of the genotypes tested here showed very dramatic and unexpected aging-related variation based on their early days’ profile. This study provides a concrete dataset to better understand the mechanisms underlying the establishment and maintenance of CHCs on the fly cuticle. It could be useful to determine physiological parameters, including age and response to climate variation, in insects collected in the wild.
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Acknowledgments
We thank Félicien Hua Vanié for his technical help in the preliminary experiments and the two reviewers for their helpful comments.
Funding
This work was financially supported by the Burgundy Regional Council (PARI2012), the CNRS (Insb), and the Burgundy University.
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Supplementary Information
Supplemental Figure 1.
Age-related variation of cuticular hydrocarbons in male and female flies of three D. melanogaster lines. Discriminant analysis of male (upper panel) and female (lower panel) flies of three D.melanogaster lines: the wild type Canton (Cs; black colored circles), the double transgenic 5670-Gal4 > UAS-traF (5670-tra; green colored circles) and homozygous mutant desat11573-Gal4 (desat1; purple colored circles). For each sex, a Factorial Discriminant Analysis (FDA) was carried out using ∑CHCs, Monoenes% and/or Dienes%, where appropriate, and LinCHCs% and BrCHCs% as quantitative variables and the “strain/age” as a qualitative variable. For the sake of clarity, the graphical representation of the results is simplified by using for each “strain/age” group the corresponding barycenter and equiprobable ellipse (p = 0.05) instead of individuals. Percentage in the axis tittle indicates the proportion of total variability explained by this axis. These data correspond to the analysis shown on Fig. 1. (PNG 14352 kb)
Supplemental Figure 2.
Age-related variation of cuticular hydrocarbons in male and female flies of various wild type and derived lines. Discriminant analysis of male (upper panel) and female (lower panel) flies of the following wild type strains: Cs (black colored circles), Dijon2000 (Di2; orange colored circles), Oregon-R (Or-R; pink colored circles) and Zimbabwe30 (Z30; green colored lines and circles, diamonds and triangles). These data correspond to the analysis shown on Fig. 2. For further explanation see Supp Fig. 1 legend. (PNG 14166 kb)
Supplemental Figure 3.
Age-related variation of cuticular hydrocarbons in male and female flies of oenocyteless lines. Discriminant analysis of male (upper panel) and female (lower panel) flies of control Cs flies (black colored circle) and of four oenocyteless genotypes (oe−) resulting of the following (females x males) crosses between two transgenic lines: #2 x #5 (2 × 5; light blue colored empty circles), #5 x #2 (5 × 2; light blue colored filled circles), #7 x #5 (7 × 5; dark blue colored empty circles) and #5 x #7 (5 × 7; dark blue colored filled circles). These data correspond to the analysis shown on Fig. 3. For further explanation see Supp Fig. 1 legend. Due to the weak strength, oe− crosses are only indicated by their centroïds. (PNG 14306 kb)
Supplemental Figure 4.
Age-related variation of desaturated cuticular hydrocarbons in male and female flies of Zimbabwe and derived lines. The variation of desaturated cuticular hydrocarbons (CHCs) was noted in males (top) and females (bottom), at the following ages: 4 days (4d), 8 days (8d), 12 days (12d), and 24 days (24d; indicated below the box plots), in the Z30 (left panels), 3 W1 (center panels) and 1 W14 (right panels). Each box plot represents the sum of isomers of CHCs with a desaturation on Carbon 9 (Iso 9), on Carbon 7 (Iso 7), or on Carbon 5 (Iso 5). These data correspond to the analysis shown on Fig. 3. For each sex and strain, we analysed the ontogeny of each CHC isomer using a Kruskall-Wallis test followed by Conover-Iman multiple pairwise comparisons (p = 0.05, with a Bonferroni correction). Different letters indicate significant differences (p < 0.05). For Z30 males, n = 11; for Z30 females, n = 16 except at 24d (n = 6). For 3 W1 males, n = 20; for 3 W1 females, n = 12–20. For 1 W14 8d flies, n = 20, and n = 2 in 2d flies, n = 8 for 4d males and n = 3 for 4d females. (PNG 7327 kb)
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Cortot, J., Farine, JP., Ferveur, JF. et al. Aging-Related Variation of Cuticular Hydrocarbons in Wild Type and Variant Drosophila melanogaster. J Chem Ecol 48, 152–164 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10886-021-01344-0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10886-021-01344-0