Melatonin influence on Drosophila melanogaster life span at different light regimes

Abstract

It was investigated the combined effects of different light regimes (round-the-clock lighting or darkening) and antioxidant melatonin on Drosophila melanogaster life span of wild type strain Canton-S,mutant strain with defect of red-ox system (Sod) and mu tant strain with disturbance of excision DNA repair (mus210). It was revealed, that maintenance of Drosophila imago at round-the-clock lighting leads to decrease of mean and/or maximum life span with compare to being at darkening. Adding of melatonin to Drosophila meal induces the geroprotector effects, mainly, in dark conditions. The effects mentioned above were most expressed in strain with mutation of Sod. All effects have revealed in both sexes. The data analysis has shown that mechanisms of different light regimes and melatonin influ ence on life span are rather different.

The genetic mechanisms of the influence of the light regime on the lifespan of Drosophila melanogaster

“…The lifespan parameters of wild-type flies varied insignificantly (within 0–7%). Thus, our results confirm our hypothesis about the importance of detoxification and DNA repair genes in the regulation of lifespan under a changing day length (Moskalev et al, 2006, 2008). …”

“…In our works (Moskalev et al, 2006, 2008) we investigated the strain Drosophila melanogaster with the defective cytoplasmic superoxide dismutase gene ( Sod ) which has only 36.7% of the normal activity of the Cu/Zn Sod enzyme (Phillips et al, 1995) and the strain with the defective mutagen-sensitive 210 gene ( mus210 ), protein-coding, involved in nucleotide-excision repair (homolog of the XPC protein in mammals) (Isaenko et al, 1994). This gene group contributes directly to the elimination of oxidative damage—through free radical detoxication (gene Sod ) and DNA repair (gene mus210 ).…”

“…In the strain with a free radical detoxication defect, the gap in the median lifespan in the dark and in the light was 36% for males and 14% for females; the maximum lifespan was 11% for males and 24% for females. At the same time, the addition of the antioxidant melatonin into the food for Drosophila with this defect reduced this variation (Moskalev et al, 2008). In the strain with the DNA repair defect, the gap in the median lifespan in the dark and in the light was 11% for males and 23% for females; and the maximum lifespan was 21% for males and 9% for females.…”