Population density and associated behavioral adjustments are potentially important in regulating physiological performance in many animals. In r-selected species like the fruit fly (Drosophila), where population density rapidly shifts in unpredictable and unstable environments, density-dependent physiological adjustments may aid survival of individuals living in a social environment. Yet, how population density (and associated social behaviors) affects physiological functions like metabolism is poorly understood in insects. Additionally, insects often show marked sexual dimorphism (larger females). Thus, in this study on D. melanogaster, we characterized the effects of fly density and sex on both mass-specific routine oxygen consumption (V̇O2) and hypoxia tolerance (PCrit). Females had significantly lower routine V̇O2 (∼4 µl O2 mg−1 h−1) than males (∼6 µl O2 mg−1 h−1) at an average fly density of 28 flies·respirometer chamber−1. However, V̇O2 was inversely related to fly density in males, with V̇O2 ranging from 4 to 11 µl O2 mg−1 h−1 at a density of 10 and 40 flies·chamber−1, respectively (r2=0.58, P<0.001). Female flies showed a similar but less pronounced effect, with a V̇O2 of 4 and 7 µl O2 mg−1 h−1 at a density of 10 and 40 flies·chamber−1, respectively (r2=0.43, P<0.001). PCrit (∼5.5 to 7.5 kPa) varied significantly with density in male (r2=0.50, P<0.01) but not female (r2=0.02, P>0.5) flies, with higher fly densities having a lower PCrit. An extensive survey of the literature on metabolism in fruit flies indicates that not all studies control for, or even report on, fly density and gender, both of which may affect metabolic measurements.

Background - TTN , the largest gene in the human body, encodes titin (TTN), a protein that plays key structural, developmental, and regulatory roles in skeletal and cardiac muscle. Variants in TTN , particularly truncating variants (TTNtvs), have been implicated in the pathogenicity of cardiomyopathy (CM). Despite this link, there is also a high burden of TTNtvs in the ostensibly healthy general population. This complicates the diagnostic interpretation of incidentally identified TTNtvs which are of increasing abundance given expanding clinical exome sequencing (ES). Methods - Incidentally identified TTNtvs were obtained from a large referral database of clinical ES (Baylor Genetics) and compared to rare population variants from gnomAD and CM-associated variants from cohort studies in the literature. A subset of TTNtv-positive children evaluated for cardiomyopathy at Texas Children's Hospital (TCH) were retrospectively reviewed for clinical features of cardiomyopathy. Amino acid-level signal-to-noise analysis (S:N) was performed. Results - Pathologic hotspots were identified within the A-band and N-terminal I-band that closely correlated with regions of high percent spliced in (PSI) of exons. Incidental TTNtvs and population TTNtvs did not localize to these regions. Variants were re-classified based on current ACMG criteria with incorporation of S:N analysis among TCH cases. Those re-classified as likely pathogenic or pathogenic were more likely to have evidence of CM on echocardiography than those re-classified as variants of unknown significance. Conclusions - Incidentally found TTNtvs are common among clinical ES referrals. Pathologic hotspots within the A-band of TTN may be informative in determining variant pathogenicity when incorporated into current ACMG guidelines.

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