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

Shostal, Olga; Moskalev, Alexey

doi:10.3389/fgene.2012.00325

“…Previous reports have demonstrated that exposure to light can decrease lifespan— extending the daily photoperiod, or housing flies in blue light reduces longevity [39, 40]. Since DR delays visual senescence and promotes the rhythmic expression of genes involved in photoreceptor homeostasis (i.e., light adaptation, calcium handling), we investigated how diet influences survival in the context of light and/or phototransduction.…”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Dietary restriction andclockdelay eye aging to extend lifespan inD. melanogaster

Hodge

¹

,

Meyerhof

²

,

Katewa

³

et al. 2021

Preprint

1

0

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Many vital processes in the eye are under circadian regulation, and circadian dysfunction has emerged as a potential driver of eye aging. Dietary restriction is one of the most robust lifespan-extending therapies and amplifies circadian rhythms with age. Herein, we demonstrate that dietary restriction extends lifespan in D. melanogaster by promoting circadian homeostatic processes that protect the visual system from age- and light-associated damage. Disrupting circadian rhythms in the eye by inhibiting the transcription factor, Clock (CLK), or CLK-output genes, accelerated visual senescence, induced a systemic immune response, and shortened lifespan. Flies subjected to dietary restriction were protected from the lifespan-shortening effects of photoreceptor activation. Inversely, photoreceptor inactivation, achieved via mutating rhodopsin or housing flies in constant darkness, primarily extended lifespan in flies reared on a high-nutrient diet. Our findings establish the eye as a diet-sensitive modulator of lifespan and indicate that vision is an antagonistically pleiotropic process that contributes to organismal aging.

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“…In insects, adult lifespan is significantly reduced because of deleterious effects of light, including that of LL or non-24 h LD cycles (Pittendrigh and Minis, 1972;von Saint-Paul and Aschoff, 1978), while DD is known to stimulate the defense system and enhance adult lifespan (Shostal and Moskalev, 2013). Similarly, a few other studies have reported higher adult lifespan in flies maintained under DD compared with those kept in LD or LL (Allemand et al, 1973;Sheeba et al, 2000).…”

Section: Adult Lifespanmentioning

confidence: 97%

Correlated changes in life history traits in response to selection for faster pre-adult development in the fruit fly Drosophila melanogaster

Yadav

¹

,

Sharma

²

2014

Journal of Experimental Biology

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Insects including the fruit fly Drosophila melanogaster are under intense pressure to develop rapidly because they inhabit ephemeral habitats. We have previously shown that when selection for faster development was artificially imposed on D. melanogaster in the laboratory, reduction of pre-adult development time and shortening of the clock period occurs, suggesting a role for circadian clocks in the regulation of life history traits. Circadian clocks in D. melanogaster have also been implicated in the control of metabolic pathways, ageing processes, oxidative stress and defense responses to exogenous stressors. In order to rigorously examine correlations between pre-adult development time and other life history traits, we assayed pre-adult survivorship, starvation and desiccation resistance, body size and body weight, fecundity and adult lifespan in faster developing populations of D. melanogaster. The results revealed that selection for faster pre-adult development significantly reduced several adult fitness traits in the faster developing flies without affecting pre-adult survivorship. Although overall fecundity of faster developing flies was reduced, their egg output per unit body weight was significantly higher than that of controls, indicating that reduction in adult lifespan might be due to disproportionate investment in reproduction. Thus our results suggest that selection for faster preadult development in D. melanogaster yields flies with higher reproductive fitness. Because these flies also have shorter clock periods, our results can be taken to suggest that pre-adult development time and circadian clock period are correlated with various adult life history traits in D. melanogaster, implying that circadian clocks may have adaptive significance.

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“…Previous reports have demonstrated that exposure to light can decrease lifespanextending the daily photoperiod, or housing flies in blue light reduces longevity [39,40].…”

Section: Dr Protects Against Lifespan Shortening From Photoreceptor Cell Stressmentioning

confidence: 99%

Dietary restriction and clock delay eye aging to extend lifespan in D. melanogaster

Hodge

¹

,

Meyerhof

²

,

Katewa

³

et al. 2021

Preprint

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Many vital processes in the eye are under circadian regulation, and circadian dysfunction has emerged as a potential driver of eye aging. Dietary restriction is one of the most robust lifespan-extending therapies and amplifies circadian rhythms with age. Herein, we demonstrate that dietary restriction extends lifespan in D. melanogaster by promoting circadian homeostatic processes that protect the visual system from age- and light-associated damage. Disrupting circadian rhythms in the eye by inhibiting the transcription factor, Clock (CLK), or CLK-output genes, accelerated visual senescence, induced a systemic immune response, and shortened lifespan. Flies subjected to dietary restriction were protected from the lifespan-shortening effects of photoreceptor activation. Inversely, photoreceptor inactivation, achieved via mutating rhodopsin or housing flies in constant darkness, primarily extended lifespan in flies reared on a high-nutrient diet. Our findings establish the eye as a diet-sensitive modulator of lifespan and indicate that vision is an antagonistically pleiotropic process that contributes to organismal aging.

show abstract

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

Cited by 7 publications

References 38 publications

Dietary restriction andclockdelay eye aging to extend lifespan inD. melanogaster

Dietary restriction andclockdelay eye aging to extend lifespan inD. melanogaster

Correlated changes in life history traits in response to selection for faster pre-adult development in the fruit fly Drosophila melanogaster

Dietary restriction and clock delay eye aging to extend lifespan in D. melanogaster

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