Most of the findings can be applied to humans as well, even though further research is still needed
In an international collaborative study, researchers from Australia, Denmark and Finland investigated how individuals of a same population differ in their ability to survive on various diets.
The researchers utilised a genetic reference panel consisting of roughly 200 closely related fruit fly strains (Drosophila melanogaster). The flies were fed six different diets containing high concentrations respectively of protein, sugar, starch, coconut oil or lard, or a combination of sugar and lard. The strains used in the study have had their genomes fully mapped, which made it possible to link the differences seen in the experiments to specific genetic variation.
The study found that small genetic differences affected the flies’ ability to use the energy of various nutrients.
“Unexpectedly we found that the fruit fly strains differed considerably, for example, in their ability to survive on a high-sugar diet. What makes this particularly surprising is the fact that the food consumed by fruit flies in nature contains a lot of sugars,” says Essi Havula, now a postdoctoral researcher at the University of Helsinki and the lead author of the study.
“Hopefully, in the future type 2 diabetes and many other metabolic diseases can be treated with nutritional planning based on knowledge of individual genomes. This would be considerably less expensive than drug therapies as well as better for the health of individuals in the long run,” says Havula.