Dietary lipids modulate Notch signaling and influence adult intestinal development and metabolism in Drosophila

We mapped about 25 million reads per sample to the Drosophila melanogaster genome (dm6). We confirmed that sterol processing genes are selectively expressed in the posterior midgut. Modifying sterol metabolism in the diet or with Hr96 mutants resulted in significant changes in metabolism transcripts, hormones expressed in enteroendocrine cells, and Notch pathway related genes. Anterior and posterior midgut mRNA profiles of wild type (y[1]w[1) flies fed a control, lipid-depleted, and high cholesterol (4x control levels) diet, and Hr96[1] and Hr96[2x] mutants. Each sample was sequenced in triplicate using Illuman NextGen sequencing.