Effects of cassava starch supplementation on behavioural characteristics and oxidative status in Drosophila melanogaster

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 metabolic-induced 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 Omu-Aran 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 starch-supplemented 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.