Gene expression responses of Ceratitis capitata (medfly) males to experimental evolution under divergent larval nutrition

The aim was to profile the gene expression responses of males to divergent selection on larval diets, using two different dietary regimes (sucrose-based ASG 'A' diet, versus starch-based Starch 'S' diet). 3 x replicated populations of medfly originating from the same base strain were set up on each of these two regimes (adult nutrition was standardised) and maintained. At generation 62, the flies were subjected to two generations of rearing on a glucose common garden diet (to standardise rearing to minimise proximate nutritional effects and minimise maternal carry over). Adult males reared under these standardised conditions were then snap frozen at 7 days post eclosion. The head-thorax and abdomen body parts of these males were then subjected to mRNA-seq. The overall aim was to describe the evolved differences in gene expression associated with the divergent larval diets. Overall design: There were 2 nutritional regimes (ASG 'A', and Starch 'S') x 3 replicates x 2 body parts (head-thorax, abdomen) = 12 samples. Total RNA was extracted using the mirVana extraction kit. RNA-seq was conducted on pools of 17-22 individuals per treatment. mRNA-seq was single end, 50 nt, standard Illumina adapters on the HiSeq 2500 platform.