Effects of high-fat diet on feeding and performance in the tobacco hornworm, Manduca sexta

Nutritionally balanced diets are important for overall fitness. For insects, fat is vital for development due to its high-energy value. Little is known about how insects regulate dietary fat for storage, but research has shown conflicting results on how altering fat impacts development and performance. In this study, we sought to investigate how high-fat diets affect developing insects. To determine how insects respond to variation in dietary fat content, we reared Manduca sexta of different larval stages on diets containing varying concentrations of linseed oil in high (5.6%), medium (3.4%) or low (0.4%) fat. Young larvae reared on high-fat diets had 80% mortality and 43% lower body mass compared to those reared on medium- or low-fat diets. Older larvae showed no difference in mortality with increasing dietary fat content, but they were smaller than controls, suggesting a developmental shift in lipid metabolism. We measured mRNA expression of Apolipoprotein I and II (APO1 and 2), proteins responsible for transporting lipids, as a possible explanation of increased survival in older larvae. Levels of APO1 and 2 mRNA did not differ with dietary fat content. We then tested the hypothesis that the high-fat diet altered feeding, resulting in the observed decrease in body size. Caterpillars fed a high-fat diet indeed ate less, as indicated by a decrease in food consumption and the number and mass of fecal pellets produced. These results suggest that increased fat disrupted feeding and may indicate that there is a threshold for lipid storage, but further studies are needed to understand the underlying mechanism. [Display omitted] •Caterpillars reared on a high-fat diet had lower body masses.•High-fat diets resulted in smaller fat storage organs with higher fat content.•High-fat diets disrupted feeding.