Hungry flies switch from cold to warm preference upon food detection.
(A) A schematic diagram of the experimental conditions. Flies were reared on fly food. Emerging flies were kept on fly food for one or two days (orange) and then starved with water-absorbing paper. Starvation was applied for 1-3 overnights (ON). The duration of starvation was chosen when the flies showed a statistically significant difference in Tp between fed and starved conditions (see “Starvation conditions” in Materials and methods for details). Starved flies were refed with either fly food (orange bar), 2 mL sucralose (blue), glucose solution (green), or fructose solution (purple) absorbed paper and then examined for temperature preference (Tp) behavioral assays. Details are provided in the experimental procedures.
(B-E) Comparison of preferred temperature (Tp) of white1118 (w1118) control flies between fed (white bar), starved (STV; gray bar), and refed (orange, blue, or green bar) states. Starvation was applied for 1ON. Starved flies were refed with fly food (orange bar) for 5, 10, 30, or 60 min (1 hr) (B), 2.8 mM sucralose solution (blue bar) for 10 min or 1 hr (C), 2.8 mM (equivalent to 5%) glucose solution (green bar) for 5 min, 10 min, or 1 hr (D), or 2.8mM fructose solution (purple bar) for 10 min or 1 hr (E). Behavioral experiments were performed at the specific time points, Zeitgeber time (ZT) 4-7. ZT0 and ZT12 are light on and light off, respectively. Dots on each bar indicate individual Tp in the assays. Numbers in italics indicate the number of trials. The Shapiro-Wilk test was performed to test for normality. One-way ANOVA was performed to compare Tp between each refeeding condition. Red or green stars indicate Tukey’s post hoc test comparing differences between experimental and fed or starved conditions, respectively. Data are presented as mean Tp with SEM. *p < 0.05. **p < 0.01. ***p < 0.001. ****p < 0.0001. NS indicates no significance.
(F) Comparison of Tp among the following conditions in w1118 (control) flies: fed (white bar), starved overnight (O/N) (water or STV; gray bar), refed with fly food (fly food; orange bar), sucralose (blue bars), glucose (green bars), or fructose (purple bars). The same data are used in Fig. 1B-E. A distribution of temperature preference in each condition is shown in Fig. S2A. The Shapiro-Wilk test was performed to test for normality. One-way ANOVA was performed to compare Tp between each refeeding condition. Red (or green) stars indicate Tukey’s post hoc test comparing differences between experimental and fed (or starved) conditions, respectively. *p < 0.05. **p < 0.01. ***p < 0.001. ****p < 0.0001. NS indicates not significant.
(G) Feeding assay: The number of touches to water (gray), 2.8 mM (equivalent to 5%) glucose (green), or 2.8 mM sucralose in each solution (blue) was examined using w1118 flies starved for 24 hrs. Water, glucose and sucralose were tested individually in the separate experiments. A cumulative number of touches to water or sugar solution for 0-30 min was plotted. Two-way ANOVA was used for multiple comparisons. Blue and green stars show Fisher’s LSD post hoc test comparing sucralose (blue stars) or glucose (green stars) solution feeding to water drinking. All data shown are means with SEM. *p < 0.05. **p < 0.01. ***p < 0.001. ****p < 0.0001.