Traumatic injury in female Drosophila melanogaster affects the development and induces behavioral abnormalities in the offspring

Abstract

Traumatic injury (TI) during pregnancy increases the risk for developing neurological disorders in the infants. These disorders are a major concern for the well-being of children born after TI during pregnancy. TI during pregnancy may result in preterm labor and delivery, abruptio placentae, and/or fetomaternal hemorrhage. Drosophila melanogaster (fruit fly) is a widely used model to study brain and behavioral disorders in humans. In this study, we analyzed the effects of TI to female fruit flies on the development timing of larvae, social interaction and the behavior of offspring flies. TI to the female flies was found to affect the development of larvae and the behavior of offspring flies. There was a significant increase in the length of larvae delivered by traumatically injured maternal flies as compared to larvae from control maternal flies (without TI). The pupae formation from larvae, and the metamorphosis of pupae to the first generation of flies were faster in the TI group than the control group. Negative geotaxis and distance of the fly to its nearest neighbor are parameters of behavioral assessment in fruit flies. Negative geotaxis significantly decreased in the first generation of both male (p = 0.0021) and female (p = 0.0426) flies. The distance between the first generation of flies to its nearest neighbor was shorter in both male and female offspring flies in the TI group as compared to control group flies. These results indicate that TI to the female flies affected the development of larvae and resulted in early delivery, impaired social interaction and behavioral alterations in the offspring.

Drosophila Exhibit Divergent Sex-Based Responses in Transcription and Motor Function After Traumatic Brain Injury

“…Consistent with mammalian and human TBI studies, flies subjected to rapid acceleration and impact exhibit TBI related secondary phase symptoms including innate immune response, neurodegeneration, disrupted sleep cycles and a decreased lifespan (27,28). The few studies that looked at responses to TBI in Drosophila have reported data either from one sex only (29,30), both sexes combined (31) or only studied epigenetic changes in offspring after injury in both sexes (32). Therefore, we sought to compare response to traumatic injury in both male and female fly brains.…”

A Pro-social Pill? The Potential of Pharmacological Treatments to Improve Social Outcomes After Pediatric Traumatic Brain Injury

“…A description of these tasks, and findings in both pediatric and adult rodent models of TBI, are reviewed in detail elsewhere ( 3 ). In addition to rodents, social deficits have also been reproduced after experimental TBI in flies ( 32 ) and zebrafish ( 33 ). Rodent TBI models have also been tested for predictive validity; meaning that factors which are known to influence social behavior in humans have also been demonstrated to affect social deficits in experimental models.…”

Behavioral and Brain Functions at 15

“…From the beginning, the journal published research on a diversity of organisms and this has continued to the present day. Indeed, recent published articles have covered research on fruit flies [ 3 , 4 ], zebrafish [ 5 ], the obligatory rodents [e.g., 6 , 7 ], and humans [ 8 , 9 ]. Also, many different techniques are used in the articles that we publish, a consequence of the interdisciplinary and multidisciplinary nature of our field, which draws from psychology, psychiatry, ethology, neuroscience, genetics, developmental biology, and more.…”