Regulation of amylase activity in drosophila melanogaster: effects of dietary carbohydrate.

The level of amylase activity in larvae and adults of Drosophila melanogaster is dependent on the dietary carbohydrate source; flies or larvae from a food medium containing starch show higher levels of activity than individuals from a food containing simple sugars. This is shown to be due to repression of activity by sugars rather than enhancement of activity by starch. Moreover, the changes in enzyme activity reflect a change in enzyme quantity rather than a change in catalytic efficiency. The seeming stimulation of amylase activity by sucrose in some experiments is due, simply, to comparisons with "starvation" diets which cause a large nonspecific reduction in enzyme activity. Though all strains tested showed repression of enzyme activity by simple sugars, the degree of repression varies between strains. Also, in those strains which carry a duplication of the amylase structural gene, the two isozymal forms of amylase can be differentially repressed by dietary sugars.