SL Metabolism and feeding behavior.

<p>Two different experimental approaches were used to determine appetite response, relative meal volume and mean daily food intake. (A) Flies starved for 3 hours where transferred to synthetic food dyed with 0.01% Bromophenol blue. Three sets of (n = 100) flies were scored for blue positive abdomens over time. The starvation-induced appetite response was plotted as % of fly population that fed overtime. (B) Flies from A that scored positive at 2.5 hours were collected, homogenized and evaluated for Bromophenol blue content by measuring absorbance at 545 nm. Absorbance is proportional to relative meal volume and shown as the mean of three sets of (n = 25) flies. The capillary feeding (CAFE) assay was performed to determine (C) mean daily intake of liquid food media per day and (D) the number of meals consumed per hour, which were used to calculate (E) the average meal volume. Error bars are represented by the S.E.M. *p-values<0.05, **<0.01.