Preprint Review Version 1 Preserved in Portico This version is not peer-reviewed

Drosophila melanogaster as a Translational Model System to Explore the Impact of Phytochemicals on Human Health

Carlos Lopez-Ortiz
ORCID logo ,
Celeste Gracia-Rodriguez
,
Samantha Belcher
,
Gerardo Flores-Iga
ORCID logo ,
Amartya Das
ORCID logo ,
Padma Nimmakayala
ORCID logo ,
Nagamani Balagurusamy
ORCID logo ,
Umesh K Reddy
* ORCID logo
Version 1 : Received: 8 August 2023 / Approved: 8 August 2023 / Online: 9 August 2023 (05:12:05 CEST)

A peer-reviewed article of this Preprint also exists.

Lopez-Ortiz, C.; Gracia-Rodriguez, C.; Belcher, S.; Flores-Iga, G.; Das, A.; Nimmakayala, P.; Balagurusamy, N.; Reddy, U.K. Drosophila melanogaster as a Translational Model System to Explore the Impact of Phytochemicals on Human Health. Int. J. Mol. Sci. 2023, 24, 13365. Lopez-Ortiz, C.; Gracia-Rodriguez, C.; Belcher, S.; Flores-Iga, G.; Das, A.; Nimmakayala, P.; Balagurusamy, N.; Reddy, U.K. Drosophila melanogaster as a Translational Model System to Explore the Impact of Phytochemicals on Human Health. Int. J. Mol. Sci. 2023, 24, 13365.

Abstract

Fruits, vegetables, and spices are natural sources of bioactive phytochemicals such as polyphenols, carotenoids, flavonoids, curcuminoids, terpenoids, and capsaicinoids, possessing multiple health benefits and relatively low toxicity. These compounds found in the diet play a central role in organism development and fitness. Given the complexity of the whole-body response to dietary changes, invertebrate model organisms can serve as valuable tools to examine the interplay between genes, signaling pathways, and metabolism. Drosophila melanogaster, an invertebrate model with its extensively studied genome, has more than 70% gene homology to humans and has been used as a model system in biological studies for a long time. The notable advantages of Drosophila as a model system, such as their low maintenance cost, high reproductive rate, short generation time and lifespan, and the high similarity of metabolic pathways between Drosophila and mammals, have encouraged the use of Drosophila in the context of screening and evaluating the impact of phytochemicals present in the diet. In this chapter, we summarize and review the benefits of Drosophila as a model system for use in the study of phytochemical ingestion and describe the previously reported effects of phytochemical consumption in Drosophila.

Keywords

Drosophila; Phytochemical; Human health; Metabolism; Disease

Subject

Biology and Life Sciences, Life Sciences

Copyright: This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

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