Spatial isotope tracing maps compartmentalized nutrient use across the adult fruit fly
Abstract
Drosophila melanogaster is a powerful model for studying systemic metabolism. Although metabolism is compartmentalized across tissues, prior work in adult Drosophila has mostly measured it in dissected tissues rather than in situ, limiting the spatial information that can be gained. Here, we combine whole-fly mass-spectrometry imaging with stable-isotope tracing and flux modeling to quantify metabolic activities across the adult fruit fly in a spatially resolved manner. Across 68 tracer-fed Oregon-R female flies and 187,709 pixels, we map 81 metabolites onto eight annotated regions, including muscle, fat body, gut, and nervous system. Glucose labeling and fitted relative fluxes indicate higher glycolytic and tricarboxylic acid cycle turnover in thoracic muscle than in abdominal fat body; proline labels the nervous system and eye; glutamine the abdominal reproductive system and gut. Alanine carries glucose-derived carbon through the hemolymph and transfers nitrogen into glutamate. In flies bearing yorkie-driven gut tumors, alanine contribution to malate rises in gut and abdomen, and reducing gut alanine uptake lowers tumor burden. Together, this work establishes a framework for quantitative spatial metabolic analysis, showing compartmentalized nutrient use across the adult fruit fly.
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BibTeX
@misc{moon2026spatial,
title = {{Spatial isotope tracing maps compartmentalized nutrient use across the adult fruit fly}},
author = {Sun Jin Moon and Kerui Huang and Jenna L. E. Blum and Connie New and Yooha Park and Yuchen Chen and Hiroshi Nishida and Veronika Pister and Md Ausrafuggaman Nahid and Yanhui Hu and Jason Tennessen and Ernest Fraenkel and John M. Asara and Shawn M. Davidson and Norbert Perrimon},
howpublished = {bioRxiv},
year = {2026},
month = oct,
doi = {10.64898/2026.10.06.757091},
url = {https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.64898/2026.10.06.757091v1},
note = {CC BY},
}
RIS
TY - UNPB
TI - Spatial isotope tracing maps compartmentalized nutrient use across the adult fruit fly
AU - Sun Jin Moon
AU - Kerui Huang
AU - Jenna L. E. Blum
AU - Connie New
AU - Yooha Park
AU - Yuchen Chen
AU - Hiroshi Nishida
AU - Veronika Pister
AU - Md Ausrafuggaman Nahid
AU - Yanhui Hu
AU - Jason Tennessen
AU - Ernest Fraenkel
AU - John M. Asara
AU - Shawn M. Davidson
AU - Norbert Perrimon
PY - 2026
DA - 2026/10/06
PB - bioRxiv
DO - 10.64898/2026.10.06.757091
UR - https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.64898/2026.10.06.757091v1
AB - Drosophila melanogaster is a powerful model for studying systemic metabolism. Although metabolism is compartmentalized across tissues, prior work in adult Drosophila has mostly measured it in dissected tissues rather than in situ, limiting the spatial information that can be gained. Here, we combine whole-fly mass-spectrometry imaging with stable-isotope tracing and flux modeling to quantify metabolic activities across the adult fruit fly in a spatially resolved manner. Across 68 tracer-fed Oregon-R female flies and 187,709 pixels, we map 81 metabolites onto eight annotated regions, including muscle, fat body, gut, and nervous system. Glucose labeling and fitted relative fluxes indicate higher glycolytic and tricarboxylic acid cycle turnover in thoracic muscle than in abdominal fat body; proline labels the nervous system and eye; glutamine the abdominal reproductive system and gut. Alanine carries glucose-derived carbon through the hemolymph and transfers nitrogen into glutamate. In flies bearing yorkie-driven gut tumors, alanine contribution to malate rises in gut and abdomen, and reducing gut alanine uptake lowers tumor burden. Together, this work establishes a framework for quantitative spatial metabolic analysis, showing compartmentalized nutrient use across the adult fruit fly.
SN - 2692-8205
ER -