Metabolic flexibility enables positive selection of mtDNA in Drosophila (RNA-seq). Drosophila melanogaster

The study used two Drosophila melanogaster fly lines, Alstonville and Dahomey, which have mitochondrial DNA variants but otherwise similar genomes. Female third instar larvae from both lines were fed on two diets, one with a 1:2 protein:carbohydrate ratio and the other with a 1:16 ratio. RNA was extracted and profiled by RNA-seq. Samples were sequenced on an Illumina Hiseq 2000 sequencer at the Ramaciotti Centre for Genomics, Sydney, Australia to produce 100bp paired end reads. At least 80 million read pairs were generated per sample. Overall design: Four independent replicates were obtained for each mitotype-diet combination.