Exposure to perfluorooctanoic acid accelerates Drosophila melanogaster juvenile development and disrupts mitochondrial metabolism
Year: 2026
Type: preprint
Abstract: ABSTRACT Per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) are persistent environmental contaminants with poorly understood sublethal effects on insects. Perfluorooctanoic acid (PFOA), one of the most widely distributed legacy PFAS is increasingly recognized for altering organismal physiology beyond traditional toxicity endpoints. Here, we use the fruit fly Drosophila melanogaster as a model to examine how PFOA exposure during larval (juvenile) development reshapes insect life-history progression and metabolic homeostasis. Our studies reveal that at environmentally relevant concentrations (nM to low µM), PFOA induces precocious expression of developmentally-regulated genes and leads to metabolic changes that persist into adulthood. At higher concentrations used to probe mechanism, PFOA accelerates larval development, disrupts mitochondrial membrane potential, and increases whole-organism metabolic heat production – results that suggest altered mitochondrial energetic efficiency. Consistent with this tradeoff, PFOA-exposed larvae that develop faster under permissive conditions exhibit heightened sensitivity to environmental stressors, including elevated temperature and reduced food hydration. Together, these findings demonstrate that PFOA disrupts metabolic and developmental processes in a dose- and context-dependent manner, highlighting sublethal effects that may influence insect resilience under environmental stress. SYNOPSIS STATEMENT Here we describe how PFOA alters the growth, development, and metabolism of the fruit fly Drosophila melanogaster . Specifically, we find that PFOA accelerates Drosophila juvenile growth while also rendering exposed larvae sensitive to environmental stress. These observations suggest that widespread PFOA contamination may impair the developmental fitness of insect populations.
Authors: Eric A. Kilbourn, Matthew R. Lowe, Kanishka Panda, Akshay M. Bhaskaran, Guomao Zheng, Aditi R. Aalati, Adam Malave, Sophia White, Anna Graber, Nika Zulkowski, Robert Pepin, Amina Salamova, Travis Nemkov, Angelo D’Alessandro, Swathi Yadlapalli, Pramod Reddy, Edgar Meyhofer, Jason M. Tennessen
Language: English
Subfield: Environmental Chemistry
Field: Environmental Science
Domain: Physical Sciences
Open Access status: green
Awards: Toward Precision Toxicology: New Approach Methodologies for Chemical Safety, G3754633476, FLYBASE: A DROSOPHILA GENOMIC AND GENETIC DATABASE, Indiana Clinical and Translational Sciences Institute, Bloomington Drosophila Stock Center at Indiana University, Investigating metabolic responses to high sugar diets and the onset of diabetic phenotypes, A Drosophila Model for the Regulation of Aerobic Glycolysis, Spatiotemporal mechanisms controlling circadian rhythms
OpenAlex ID: W7165035753