Can Stress From Isolation Affect Feeding Patterns in Drosophila Males that Lead to Phenotypes of Type 2 Diabetes?
Heledanne Woldeselasie
Department of Biology
Faculty Supervisor: Blake Riggs
After the Covid pandemic, more people feel isolated as there is a decrease in social interaction. With it, comes the chronic stress that affects feeding behavior and leads to diseases such as Type 2 Diabetes. Studies have shown that chronic stress can lead to cravings for food that is high in sugar/ fats, as well as, increase in apoptosis or cell death of insulin producing cells which can lead to Type 2 Diabetes. Unfortunately, there is little research dedicated to behavioral studies that focus on stress from isolation as a leading factor to feeding patterns, and even fewer that target specific stress markers and pathways to understand the relationship. Our aim is to close the gap in knowledge of how to use stress markers to clearly understand the relationship between stress from isolation, feeding patterns and Type 2 Diabetes by using the model Drosophila melanogaster. We hypothesize that we will see a correlating relationship between stress from isolation through the high levels of UPR stress markers BIP and Xbp1, and greater feeding behavior in high sugar food that will lead to phenotypes of Type 2 Diabetes.With this understanding, we will be able to biologically modify the impact of stress.