Loss of function in the Drosophila clock gene period results in altered intermediary lipid metabolism and increased susceptibility to starvation

The fruit fly Drosophila is a prime model in circadian research, but still little is known about its circadian regulation of metabolism. Daily rhythmicity in levels of several metabolites has been found, but knowledge about hydrophobic metabolites is limited. We here compared metabolite levels including lipids between period(01) (per(01)) clock mutants and Canton-S wildtype (WT(CS)) flies in an isogenic and non-isogenic background using LC–MS. In the non-isogenic background, metabolites with differing levels comprised essential amino acids, kynurenines, pterinates, glycero(phospho)lipids, and fatty acid esters. Notably, detectable diacylglycerols (DAG) and acylcarnitines (AC), involved in lipid metabolism, showed lower levels in per(01) mutants. Most of these differences disappeared in the isogenic background, yet the level differences for AC as well as DAG were consistent for fly bodies. AC levels were dependent on the time of day in WT(CS) in phase with food consumption under LD conditions, while DAGs showed weak daily oscillations. Two short-chain ACs continued to cycle even in constant darkness. per(01) mutants in LD showed no or very weak diel AC oscillations out of phase with feeding activity. The low levels of DAGs and ACs in per(01) did not correlate with lower total food consumption, body mass or weight. Clock mutant flies showed higher sensitivity to starvation independent of their background-dependent activity level. Our results suggest that neither feeding, energy storage nor mobilisation is significantly affected in per(01) mutants, but point towards impaired mitochondrial activity, supported by upregulation of the mitochondrial stress marker 4EBP in the clock mutants. ELECTRONIC SUPPLEMENTARY MATERIAL: The online version of this article (10.1007/s00018-019-03441-6) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.