FIGURE 5.

Deficiency in glutamate causes the metabolic phenotype of gabat^f. a, glutamate rescues the metabolic phenotype of gabat^f. When supplementing sucrose food with glutamate (final concentration = 0.05 m), the metabolic phenotype of gabat^f mutant males is rescued. Fisher's exact test, ***, p < 0.0005. b, specific amino acids rescue the metabolic phenotype of gabat^f males. When we supplement the sucrose diet with the nine amino acids that can be metabolized into glutamate by specific aminotransferases, we found that the following amino acids rescue the metabolic phenotype: alanine, glutamine, leucine, phenylalanine, tyrosine, and valine. Fisher's exact test, *, p < 0.05; **, p < 0.005; ***, p < 0.0005. c, survival curves of gabat^f flies on specific diets. Using data from b, we plotted the proportion of live gabat^f mutants as a function of the number of days the mutants were given a specific diet. Rescue data from b were compared on day 7. d, GOT1 mediates the metabolic rescue of gabat^f by alanine. We placed males of our wild-type, gabat^f, ;got1^wHy;, and got1^wHy;;gabat^f strain on alanine, aspartate, and sucrose food. A one-way ANOVA between subjects was conducted to compare the effect of a food treatment on survival among wild-type, gabat^f, ;got1^wHy;, and ;got1^wHy;gabat^f strains. There was a significant effect of the food treatment on survival for the 12 groups (F(11) = 156.1, p < 0.0001). When combined with ;got1^wHy;, the metabolic phenotype of gabat^f cannot be rescued by alanine or aspartate. Different levels (A–C) indicate statistical significance according to Tukey post hoc tests.