Fig. 1

Drosophila melanogaster as a model organism for nutrigenomics and its translational impact. a The fruit fly has emerged as an excellent model organism to study nutrigenomics in aging and age-related diseases. Drosophila is well-suited in this line of research due to the highly annotated and significantly conserved (compared to mammals) genome. Notably, ~ 75% of disease-related genes in humans have functional orthologs in the fly, while there are significant similarities in organs that perform the equivalent functions of the mammalian heart, lung, kidney, gut, liver, adipose tissue, and reproductive tract. Drosophila is characterized by well-developed and complex neural and circulatory systems; the latter is composed of a pumping heart tube that through hemolymph circulates regulatory molecules (e.g., insulin-like peptides) to peripheral tissues. Discrete clusters of cells in the brain, muscle, and fat body maintain insect carbohydrate homeostasis in a way similar to pancreatic α- and β-cells. Drosophila exerts several complex physiological functions, such as nutrients digestion, absorption, and post-absorption processes making this organism an ideal in vivo experimental platform for nutrigenomics studies. b As most of the components of the human digestive system (shown here diagrammatically) have equivalent modules in the fly model, the latter can be used in nutritional sciences and nutrigenomics