Genes Involved in Caffeine Resistance in D. melanogaster

The goal of this study is to use the DSPR (Drosophila Synthetic Population Resource) to map genes underlying variable xenobiotic resistance, using caffeine as a model toxic compound. As part of this work we took lines that were relatively resistant to caffeine and lines that were relatively susceptible to caffeine, and exposed females from each set of lines to media containing 1% caffeine, and to regular media. This resulted in four pooled samples; (1) Resistant genotypes exposed to caffeine, (2) Resistant genotypes on regular media, (3) Susceptible genotypes exposed to caffeine, and (4) Susceptible genotypes on regular media. An RNAseq library was generated for each sample, and after sequencing and analysis we identified genes differentially expressed between "high" and "low" genotype pools, and genes induced in the presence of caffeine.