As with ATGL mutant mice, Bmm flies are obese and starvation-sensitive due to their inability to mobilize fat stores during starvation.
Also, the age-associated tendencies between our standard and DR-like regimens suggest increased synthesis (or reduced utilization) of lipids in long-living flies and agree with higher lipid stores and starvation resistance of DR flies in previous studies (Burger et al., 2007; Katewa et al., 2012).
The clear appearance of these worms may be due to inappropriate release of proteases involved in the molting process, loss of proper adhesion between tissues, and/or loss of fat stores due to starvation from the loose cuticle blocking food intake.
Depletion of glucose stores due to starvation, parasite utilisation of glucose, cytokine-induced impairment of gluconeogenesis have been implicated [ 14].
Drosophila melanogaster encodes only one HNF4 ortholog, and larvae carrying a null mutation in this gene are unable to mobilize fat stores for energy during starvation [9].
Fat stores offer protection against starvation, but are a liability in escape performance, and increase flight costs.
As LDs are internal nutrient stores for use during starvation, their contents are accessed primarily through the actions of specific enzymes, such as hormone-sensitive lipase.
This group includes far-3, which encodes a fatty acid/retinol binding protein (Garofalo et al. 2003), as well as the lipl-1 gene encoding a lysosomal acid lipase, which is transcriptionally up-regulated and promotes the mobilization of lipid stores in response to starvation (O'Rourke and Ruvkun 2013).
With starvation, triglycerides stored in adipose tissue are hydrolyzed to their free fatty acids.
Importantly, Beclin 1 knockdown did not alter the increased ER Ca2+-store content upon nutrient starvation.
