Fig. 3.

DNA oligomers do not transfer well between flies and DNA oligomer does not influence food preference. (A) One fly was hand fed 100 sips of oligomer solution (3.5 ng/µL; blue filled) and housed for 2 d in a food vial with a second nonfed fly. Values have been normalized to the number of oligomer molecules in the fed fly (determined by qPCR to be ∼20,000 molecules). Boxes are Q1–Q3; center line is mean, whiskers are 95% CIs; n = 6. There is no significant transfer of oligomer between most animals (one-sampled t test µ_o = 0; n = 6; µ = 2.3%, 3.4%, and 1.6%, respectively. P = 0.19, 0.22, and 0.32, respectively), except for slight transfer from males to females (n = 6; µ = 0.9%, P = 0.00418). (B) Oligomer added to standard cornmeal/molasses/agar media does not alter preference. Preference was measured using an observation assay (computer photography). Positive preference indexes indicate attraction, whereas negative values indicate aversion for the oligomer-laden food. Data are from three experiments in which 50 flies were allowed to feed for 2 d. Each data point is one experiment. Related controls are in SI Appendix, Figs. S2 and S3.