The Effect of Preadult Malnutrition on D. Melanogaster Offspring Cognition

Overview

Protein malnutrition, a condition arising, in part, from inadequate intake of protein, largely affects children living in developing nations. Childhood protein malnutrition may cause lifelong health problems, and is associated with poor functioning of the cerebrum. The purpose of this experiment was to determine if protein malnutrition during the larval stages of D. melanogaster affected learning and memory of the F1 generation. It was hypothesized that if larvae were fed a low protein/high carbohydrate diet, then their offspring will have diminished learning and memory compared to the offspring of flies fed a high protein/low carbohydrate diet during the larval stages. Parental generation larvae were raised on either a healthy high protein/low carbohydrate, an unhealthy low protein/high carbohydrate, or an equal protein/carbohydrate control diet, then switched to the control diet in adulthood. The F1 generation was raised entirely on the control diet. Learning and memory were evaluated with a negative reinforcement assay where flies were taught a negative association to the smell of vinegar. The results suggest that there is an effect of parental pre-adult malnutrition on offspring learning and memory, as supported by t-tests. The less protein and more carbohydrates are present in the diet, the longer it takes offspring to learn, and the shorter is their memory retention. The offspring of the malnourished larvae had improved learning but diminished memory compared to the malnourished P generation. However, the healthy flies exhibited no change between generations. To evaluate the extent of cognitive impairment in the F1 generation, the F1 flies were fed a healthy high protein/low carbohydrate diet throughout their lifespan, as opposed to the control diet. This treatment resulted in the amount of time needed to learn returning to healthy levels for both the offspring of malnourished and control flies, but did not significantly improve memory retention. These results suggest that the cognitive impairment caused by pre-adult protein malnutrition may be inherited by the next generation, and the memory impairment seems irreversible even with a healthy F1 diet.

Competition history

• AJAS 2020 Category not listed

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