Biology subjects

Carey, J. R.

Publications and source records attributed to Carey, J. R..

2 recordsLinked to original sources

bioRxiv2023

Daily Activity Profiles over the Lifespan of Female Medflies as Biomarkers of Aging and Longevity

The relationship between the early age activity of Mediterranean fruit flies or other fruit flies and their lifespan has not been much studied, in contrast to the connections between lifespan and diet, sexual signaling and reproduction. The objective of this study is to assess intraday and day-to-day activity profiles of female Mediterranean fruit flies and their role as biomarker of longevity as well as to explore the relationships between these activity profiles, diet and age-at-death throughout the lifespan. Three distinct patterns of activity variations in early age activity profiles can be distinguished. A low-caloric diet is associated with a delayed activity peak, while a high-caloric diet is linked with an earlier activity peak. We find that age-at-death of individual medflies is connected to their activity profiles in early life. An increased risk of mortality is associated with increased activity in early age, as well as with a higher contrast between daytime and nighttime activity. Conversely, medflies are more likely to have a longer lifespan when they are fed a medium caloric diet and when their daily activity is more evenly distributed across the early age span and between daytime and nighttime. The before-death activity profile of medflies displays two characteristic before-death patterns, where one pattern is characterized by slowly declining daily activity and the other by a sudden decline in activity that is followed by death.

bioinformatics↗

bioRxiv2022

Laboratory rearing alters activity and sleep patterns in the olive fruit fly

Olive fruit flies, Bactrocera oleae (Diptera: Tephritidae) that are laboratory reared in artificial diet are essential for the genetic control techniques for this pest. However, the colonys laboratory adaptation can affect their quality. We used the Locomotor Activity Monitor (LAM25, Trikinetics, MA, USA) to track the activity and sleep patterns of adult olive fruit flies reared as immatures in olives (F2-F3 generation) and in artificial diet (>300 generations). Counts of beam breaks caused by the adult fly activity were used as an estimation of its locomotor activity levels during the light and dark period. A longer than five minutes period of adults inactivity during the dark period was considered as one sleep episode. Activity levels and sleep parameters were found to be dependent on sex, mating status and rearing history. In virgin flies reared in olives, males were more active than females and increased their locomotor activity towards the end of the light period. Mating decreased the locomotor activity levels of males, but not of females olive-reared flies. Laboratory flies reared in artificial diet had lower locomotor activity levels during the light period and more sleep episodes of shorter duration compared to flies reared in olives. We describe the diurnal locomotor activity patterns of B. oleae adults reared in olive fruits and in artificial diet. We discuss how locomotor activity and sleep pattern differences may affect the laboratory flies ability to compete with wild males in the field.

animal behavior and cognition↗