Effect of developmental heavy metal stress on gene expression in adult D. melanogaster

We examined the effect of developmental exposure to the heavy metals cadmium, copper, and lead on gene expression in adult head tissue in the model organism Drosophila melanogaster. Our goals were to determine whether developmental exposure to metal-contaminated food influences gene expression in head tissue of adult flies following their removal from the contaminated food source and to characterize the patterns of differentially expressed genes due to developmental metal stress. Our work reveals that developmental metal exposure has the potential to have metal-specific and persistent effects on gene expression in adults even after the metal stress has been removed.