Regulation of Drosophila life-span: effect of genetic background, sex, mating and social status.
During the past decade, model organisms such as Drosophila have made it possible to identify individual genes and pathways that regulate organismal life-span. However, despite the progress made in Drosophila aging research, many longevity studies have often yielded controversial results that can be attributed to differences both in genetic background and in experimental design. Here, we describe the results of a systematic analysis of life-span comparisons in two laboratory wild-type strains. The main goal of these studies is to clarify the effects of social status, mating and sex on life-span with the aim of defining the optimal experimental design whereby the influence of these factors would be minimized. We find that differences in environmental factors and genetic background can be minimized by measuring the life-span of flies that are maintained as mixed-sex groups that allow for regular sexual and social contacts and seems to be more physiologically relevant for estimation of population's life-span. Taken together, these results may be especially important for screens designed to search for genes that may be involved in longevity as well as for comparative analysis of strains in which the genetic background is unknown or in those cases where it is very difficult to equilibrate.
Iliadi
Konstantin G
KG
Program in Developmental and Stem Cell Biology, The Hospital for Sick Children, 101 College Street, Toronto, Ontario, Canada.
Iliadi
Natalia N
NN
Boulianne
Gabrielle L
GL
D000375:Aging / Q000235:genetics / Q000502:physiology*; D000818:Animals; D004330:Drosophila / Q000235:genetics* / Q000502:physiology; D005260:Female; D005838:Genotype; D008136:Longevity / Q000235:genetics / Q000502:physiology*; D008297:Male; D012098:Reproduction / Q000235:genetics / Q000502:physiology