Drosophila melanogaster p53 has developmental stage-specific and sex-specific effects on adult life span indicative of sexual antagonistic pleiotropy.
Truncated and mutant forms ofp53 affect life span in Drosophila, nematodes and mice, however the role of wild-type p53 in aging remains unclear. Here conditional over-expression of both wild-type and mutant p53 transgenes indicated that, in adult flies, p53 limits life span in females but favors life span in males. In contrast, during larval development, moderate over-expression of p53 produced both male and female adults with increased life span. Mutations of the endogenous p53 gene also had sex-specific effects on life span under control and stress conditions: null mutation of p53 increased life span in females, and had smaller, more variable effects in males. These developmental stage-specific and sex-specific effects of p53 on adult life span are consistent with a sexual antagonistic pleiotropy model.
Molecular and Computational Biology Program, Department of Biological Sciences, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, CA 90089-2910, USA.
Morris
M
Waskar
Gary N
GN
Landis
Jie
J
Shen
Christina
C
Curtis
Kevin
K
Tozer
Diana
D
Abdueva
Dmitriy
D
Skvortsov
Simon
S
Tavaré
John
J
Tower
D000375:Aging / Q000235:genetics / Q000502:physiology*; D000818:Animals; D029721:Drosophila Proteins / Q000235:genetics / Q000502:physiology*; D004331:Drosophila melanogaster / Q000235:genetics / Q000254:growth & development / Q000502:physiology*; D005260:Female; D018014:Gene Transfer Techniques; D005838:Genotype; D007814:Larva / Q000235:genetics / Q000254:growth & development / Q000502:physiology; D008136:Longevity / Q000235:genetics / Q000502:physiology*; D008297:Male; D023421:Models, Animal; D008954:Models, Biological; D009154:Mutation / Q000235:genetics; D010641:Phenotype; D012727:Sex Characteristics; D016159:Tumor Suppressor Protein p53 / Q000235:genetics / Q000502:physiology*
D029721:Drosophila Proteins; D016159:Tumor Suppressor Protein p53; C474203:p53 protein, Drosophila