A rapid cold-hardening response protecting against cold shock injury in Drosophila melanogaster

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Abstract
In studies of insect cold-hardiness, the supercooling point (SCP) is defined as the temperature at which spontaneous nucleation of body fluids occurs. Despite having an SCP of − 20°C, adults of Drosophila melanogaster did not survive exposure to −5°C, which suggests that cold shock causes lethal injury that is not associated with freezing. If, however, flies were chilled at 5 °C, for as little as 30min, approximately 50% of the flies survived exposure to −5°C for 2h. This capacity to cold-harden rapidly was greatest in 3-and 5-day-old adults. The rapid cold-hardening response was also observed in larvae and pupae: no larvae survived 2 h of exposure to − 5 °C, whereas 63 % pupariated if chilled at 5 °C before subzero exposure. Similarly, although exposure of pupae to −8°C was lethal, if pre-chilled at 5°C 22% eclosed. This extremely rapid cold-hardening response may function to allow insects to enhance cold-tolerance in response to diurnal or unexpected seasonal decreases in environmental temperature.