Effects of Environmental Temperature and Food Medium on Biological and Biochemical Parameters in Drosophila melanogaster (Diptera: Drosophilidae)

Activity changes of two enzymes (ADH and alpha GPDH) were followed in fresh weight and lipids content with adults of Drosophila melanogaster The different characters were studied in an European population and an African one which cliff er in their frequencies at Adh and alpha Gpdh loci The effect of ethanol addition or sucrose absence from standard nutritional media was followed at rearing tem peratures of 15 20 25 and 29 degrees C It was observed that the addition of ethanol to a normal medium enhance ADH activity fresh body weight and relative lipids content of adult flies These results suggest that ADH enzyme should play an important role in the formation of lipids The here presented results revealed also that under the different temperatures flies response to alcohol or sucrose stress varied depending to then geographic origin The resource exploitation by geographic populations would probably have an adaptative significance