Quantification of dietary choline utilization in adult Drosophila melanogaster by radioisotope methods

Abstract

Uptake and turnover of label from dietary choline-1,2,-14C in reproducing and non-reproducing Drosophila melanogaster adults was used to quantify the amounts of choline utilized for reproductive, growth, and tissue maintenance purposes. On an optimal diet females used about four times as much choline, 18·4 × 10-8 g per day, as males with 47 per cent of the daily amount of choline consumed being employed for reproduction, 34 per cent for growth, and 19 per cent for tissue maintenance. In males 32 per cent was used for reproduction, 4 per cent for growth, and 64 per cent for tissue maintenance. When starved for choline, the amounts of choline utilized for these purposes were reduced about threefold in both adult males and females. Females, when fed an optimal diet, contributed fifty-six times as much choline to the fertilized egg as the male parent. © 1970.