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Repeated ethanol intoxications of Drosophila melanogaster adults increases the resistance to ethanol of their progeny
Author(s) -
Bonilla Michelle,
McPherson Michael,
Coreas Jocelyn,
Boulos Michael,
Chavol Paniz,
Alrabadi Ranna I.,
LozaColl Mariano
Publication year - 2021
Publication title -
alcoholism: clinical and experimental research
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.267
H-Index - 153
eISSN - 1530-0277
pISSN - 0145-6008
DOI - 10.1111/acer.14647
Subject(s) - drosophila melanogaster , ethanol , biology , analysis of variance , drosophila (subgenus) , drosophilidae , affect (linguistics) , resistance (ecology) , genetics , toxicology , physiology , medicine , psychology , gene , biochemistry , communication , ecology
Background For decades, Drosophila melanogaster has been used as a model organism to understand the genetics and neurobiology of ethanol intoxication and tolerance. Previous research has shown that acute and chronic pre‐exposures to ethanol can trigger the development of functional ethanol tolerance in flies and has unveiled some of the genetic pathways involved in the process. To our knowledge, however, no previous work has systematically explored whether repeated intoxications of adult flies can affect the ethanol tolerance of their progeny. Methods Adult flies were intoxicated several times (once daily, over several days), and their F1 and F2 progeny were subjected to a functional tolerance test in which flies are exposed to ethanol and video recorded twice within 5 hr. Their behavior was subsequently analyzed to determine how long it took them to become sedated during the first and second exposures. One‐ and 2‐way ANOVAs were used to determine whether parental treatment had an effect on their progeny's baseline resistance and/or acquired functional tolerance to ethanol. Results Parental flies that were intoxicated several times produced F1 and F2 progeny with a significantly higher resistance to ethanol than progeny from unexposed controls. Further, parental intoxications inconsistently increased the progeny's capacity to develop rapid functional tolerance upon re‐exposure to ethanol. The transmission of increased ethanol resistance to progeny lasted several days after the last parental intoxication. Conclusion To our knowledge, this is the first demonstration that repeated parental daily intoxications affect the progeny's response to ethanol in fruit flies. Our findings support the use of D . melanogaster to explore conserved pathways underlying the transmission of ethanol tolerance and can help in the identificaton of novel strategies for managing alcohol use disorder.