Abstract
Studies have revealed that adaptive life-history behaviour and reproductive capacity of
an organism are influenced by the amount and quality of nutrients. Furthermore, it has
been established that the balance between energy production and utilization is crucial
to the animal's survival and reproduction vis-a-vis the organism's ability to adjust their
developmental, physiological or behavioural response to environmental conditions. In
the present study an attempt was made to investigate the effect of cassava starch
supplementation on chill-coma recovery, reproductive capacity and some metabolicinduced changes in oxidative status of Drosophila melanogaster, which was raised on
a normal fly diet supplemented with 500, 750, 1000, 1250, 1500 and 2000 mg/mL
starch extracted from three cassava cultivars (TMS 92/0326, TMS 30572 and OmuAran local sweet cassava). Data generated from this study showed that flies consuming
starch-supplemented diet have a higher level of cold resistance, an increased survival
rate as well as enhanced egg to adult viability. However, flies raised on starchsupplemented diet showed a significantly higher concentration of thiobarbituric acid
reactive substances (TBARS) with a compensatory significant increase in activities of
antioxidant defense enzymes, and nitric oxide scavenging capacity compared to flies
raised on the normal fly diet. In conclusion, data obtained from this study revealed that
supplementation to the D. melanogaster diet with cassava starch enhances the
organism's survival rate, and adaptive response to cold stress, with concomitant
improvement in antioxidant status.
Olarewaju M. Oluba, Motunrayo M. Ayodele, Abigail G. Adeyonu, Ayoola J. Shoyombo, Olayinka O. Alabi, Oghenerobor B. Akpor. (2020) Effects of cassava starch supplementation on behavioural characteristics and oxidative status in Drosophila melanogaster, Asian Journal of Agriculture and Biology, Volume 8, Issue 1.
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