Dietary utilization of aliphatic alcohols by Drosophila

Abstract

Metabolic utilization was measured by the increase in life duration of adults receiving a low concentration of alcohol as the sole energy source. Flies were able to use primary alcohols as food in the following order: butanol > ethanol > propanol. Methanol and secondary alcohols were not metabolized. These results cannot be explained by considering only the specific activity of alcohol dehydrogenase upon these substrates. © 1980 Birkhäuser Verlag.