Data from: Shifted levels of sleep and activity under darkness as mechanisms underlying ectoparasite resistance

Parasites harm host fitness and are pervasive agents of natural selection
to evolve host defense strategies. Host defensive traits in populations
typically show genetic variation, which may be maintained when resistance
imposes fitness costs on the host in the absence of parasites. Previously
we demonstrated significant evolutionary responses to artificial selection
for increasing behavioral immunity to Gamasodes queenslandicus mites in
replicate lines of Drosophila melanogaster. Here, we report
transcriptional shifts in metabolic processes between selected and control
fly lines based on RNA-seq analyses. We also show decreased starvation
resistance and increased use of nutrient reserves in flies from
mite-resistant lines. Additionally, mite-resistant lines exhibited
increased behavioral activity, such as, reduced sleep and elevated oxygen
consumption under conditions of darkness. The link between resistance and
sleep was confirmed in an independent panel of D. melanogaster genetic
lines exhibiting variable sleep durations, showing a positive correlation
between mite resistance and reduced sleep. Experimentally restraining the
activity of artificially selected mite-resistant flies during exposure to
parasites under dark conditions reduced their resistance advantage
relative to control flies. The results suggest that ectoparasite
resistance in this system involves increased dark-condition activity and
metabolic gene expression at the expense of nutrient reserves and
starvation resistance.