Comparative Metabolomic Study of Drosophila Species with Different Lifespans

Abstract

The increase in life expectancy, leading to a rise in the proportion of older people, is accompanied by a prevalence of age-related disorders among the world population, the fight against which today is one of the leading biomedical challenges. Exploring the biological insights concerning the lifespan is one of the ways to provide a background for designing an effective treatment for the increase in healthy years of life. Untargeted direct injection mass spectrometry-based metabolite profiling of 12 species of Drosophila with significant variations in natural lifespans was conducted in this research. A cross-comparison study of metabolomic profiles revealed lifespan signatures of flies. These signatures indicate that lifespan extension is associated with the upregulation of amino acids, phospholipids, and carbohydrate metabolism. Such information provides a metabolome-level view on longevity and may provide a molecular measure of organism age in age-related studies.

Metabolome Profiling in Aging Studies

“…Throughout life, the chances of dying due to predators, diseases, accidents, etc., are usually constant. Therefore, fly samples for the study of aging can be obtained throughout life [ 94 ]. A human belongs to the type I survival curve, in which the proportion of people is high in early and middle age and decreases as a human approaches old age, and mortality is maximum in old age.…”

“…Regarding metabolomics, several studies of aging were performed in animal models, both mammalian (mice, rats, dogs) [ 62 , 82 , 97 , 98 ] and non-mammalian (vertebrate and invertebrate) [ 94 , 99 , 100 , 101 , 102 , 103 , 104 , 105 ] ( Table 2 ). As a rule, early works are an integral part of complex studies, which include, in addition to metabolomics, histological, biochemical, and genetic studies.…”

“…In the research of Maslov et al (2021), the identification of signs of longevity was based on a comparative study of the metabolomic composition of twelve Drosophila species with different LS ( D.virilis , D.ananassae , D.saltans , D.simulans , D.austrosaltans , D.bipectinata , D.yakuba , D.melanogaster , D.willistoni , D.erecta , D.kikkawai, and D.Biarmipes ) [ 94 ]. The studied species have an identical body structure and life cycle [ 116 ], at the same time, as a result of a long evolution, they have acquired significant phenotypic differences (size, weight, etc.)…”

Metabolome profiling in the study of aging processes

“…Следует отметить ряд метаболомных исследований старения, выполненных на животных моделях как млекопитающих (мыши, крысы, собаки) [58,78,90,91], так и не относящихся к млекопитающим (позвоночные и беспозвоночные) [55,92,93] (табл. 2).…”

“…В работе Маслова и соавт. в основе выявления признаков долголетия лежало сравнительное изучение метаболомного состава 12 видов Drosophila с разной ПЖ (D. virilis, D. ananassae, D. saltans, D. simulans, D. austrosaltans, D. bipectinata, D. yakuba, D. melanogaster, D. willistoni, D. erecta, D. kikkawai, D. biarmipes) [55]. У изучаемых видов идентичное строение тела и жизненный цикл [108], в то же время в результате длительной эволюции они приобрели значительные фенотипические различия (размер, вес, и т.п.)…”