Fig. 2. MLX phosphorylation on an evolutionarily conserved motif promotes the sugar response in Drosophila.

a. Amino acid sequence alignment of MLX phosphorylation sites across different animal species.

b. MLX phosphorylation in 3^rd instar control or mlx null (mlx¹) larvae complemented with fat body-specific expression of mouse MLX-WT or MLX-A (mMlx-WT or mMlx-A, respectively). ACTIN serves as a loading control. n=3.

c. Pupariation of control, mlx¹, mMlx-WT or mMlx-A larvae grown in low sugar diet (LSD, 10% yeast). N=4.

d. Survival of control, mlx¹, mMlx-WT or mMlx-A larvae grown on LSD or high sugar diet (HSD, 10% yeast and 15% sucrose). Two-way ANOVA ****p<0.0001, ns=not significant. N=4.

e. Pupariation of control, mlx¹, mMlx-WT or mMlx-A larvae grown on HSD. N=4.

f. Triglyceride (TAG) levels of 3^rd instar control, mlx¹, mMlx-WT or mMlx-A larvae grown on LSD or medium sugar diet (MSD, 10% yeast and 5% sucrose). Two-way ANOVA *p<0.05, **p<0.01, ***p<0.001, ****p<0.0001, ns=not significant. N=3.

g. Neutral lipid staining of the fat body in 3^rd instar control, mlx¹, mMlx-WT or mMlx-A larvae grown in LSD or MSD. n=5.

h. Hemolymph trehalose levels in 3^rd instar control, mlx¹, mMlx-WT or mMlx-A larvae in LSD or MSD. Two-way ANOVA *p<0.05, **p<0.01, ***p<0.001, ****p<0.0001, ns=not significant. N=3.