Julieann M. Colón-Sarriera, Nicolás L. Fuenzalida-Uribe, Christian D. Del Valle-Colón, Anaís S. Mercado-Rosario, Imilce A. Rodríguez-Fernández, Alfredo Ghezzi

Biology Department at University of Puerto Rico, Río Piedras Campus

INTRODUCTION: Chronic alcohol use has been shown to cause neuroadaptations in the brain that lead to several physiological and behavioral disorders including tolerance and dependence, cognitive deficits, and alterations in sleep patterns. However, how chronic alcohol exposure in the distinct developmental stages differentially affects the adult stage remains unknown. Here we use a Drosophila model to explore the lasting behavioral effects of chronic alcohol exposure during different stages of development that can be thoroughly studied in the adult individual.

METHODS: To understand this phenomenon, wild-type female Drosophila melanogaster were raised in an ethanol-containing medium at different stages of its life cycle: during larvae and/or adulthood. Adult flies were subjected to behavioral assays to understand the lasting effects alcohol has on tolerance development and sleep.

RESULTS: Among all experimental groups ethanol-reared flies, which were removed from a daily supplemented ethanol media during adulthood, showed significantly reduced periods of sleep time during the day. For tolerance development assays, control, ethanol-reared and lifetime-exposed flies developed alcohol tolerance. Nevertheless, while lifetime-exposed flies showed increased alcohol sensitivity, it was showed to be reduced for ethanol-reared flies.

CONCLUSION: Collectively, our results demonstrated that chronic alcohol exposure has lasting effects in Drosophila behavior that can be measured in the adult individual. Moreover, our findings suggest that adult behavior is affected differently depending on the life stage in which the stimulus was presented.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS: NIH Grant 5P20GM103642, NIH Grant 5R25GM061151-19, NSF Grant 1736026, NIH Grant 2R25NS080687-11, NIH Grant P20GM103475, NSF Grant 1633184, and NSF Grant 2131647.