Strain‐specific effects of parental age on offspring in Drosophila melanogaster

Maternal age is generally known to be negatively correlated with the lifespan of offspring in several animal models including yeast, rotifers, flies, and possibly in humans. However, several reports have shown positive effects of parental age on offspring lifespan. Thus, there was a need to investigate further the inconsistent results on the effect of parental age on lifespan. In this study, the effects of parental age on offspring fitness and lifespan were examined by using Drosophila melanogaster. The lifespan of offspring from old parents was significantly increased compared with that of the young counterparts in the Canton‐S (CS) strain but not in other D. melanogaster strains, such as Oregon‐R (OR) and w¹¹¹⁸. To find out why the lifespan is increased in the offspring from old parents in CS flies, fitness components that could modulate lifespan were examined in CS flies. Egg weight and body weight were reduced by parental aging and the offspring of old fathers or old mothers developed faster than that of the young. In addition, the offspring of old parents had increased resistance to oxidative and heat shock stresses. However, reproductive capacity, mating preference, and food intake were unaffected by parental aging. These results indicate that parental aging in CS strain D. melanogaster has beneficial effects on the lifespan and fitness of offspring. The presence of strain‐specific manner effects suggests that genetic background might be a significant factor in the parental age effect.     

The “unguarded‐X” and the genetic architecture of lifespan: Inbreeding results in a potentially maladaptive sex‐specific reduction of female lifespan in Drosophila melanogaster

Sex differences in ageing and lifespan are ubiquitous in nature. The "unguarded‐X” hypothesis (UXh) suggests they may be partly due to the expression of recessive mutations in the hemizygous sex chromosomes of the heterogametic sex, which could help explain sex‐specific ageing in a broad array of taxa. A prediction central to the UX hypothesis is that inbreeding will decrease the lifespan of the homogametic sex more than the heterogametic sex, because only in the former does inbreeding increase the expression of recessive deleterious mutations. In this study, we test this prediction by examining the effects of inbreeding on the lifespan and fitness of male and female Drosophila melanogaster across different social environments. We found that, across social environments, inbreeding resulted in a greater reduction of female than male lifespan, and that inbreeding effects on fitness did not seem to counterbalance sex‐specific effects on lifespan, suggesting the former are maladaptative. Inter‐ and intra‐sexual correlation analyses also allowed us to identify evidence of an underlying joint genetic architecture for inbreeding effects on lifespan. We discuss these results in light of the UXh and other alternative explanations, and suggest that more attention should be paid to the possibility that the “unguarded‐X” may play an important role in the evolution of sex‐specific lifespan.     

Interaction between sexes and between different circadian phenotypes affects lifespan in the fruit fly Drosophila melanogaster

Circadian clocks regulate the daily temporal structure of physiological and behavioural functions. In the fruit fly Drosophila melanogaster Meigen, disruption of daily rhythms is suggested to reduce the fly's lifespan. In the present study, because pairs of mixed‐sex flies are known to show an activity pattern different from that of individual flies, this hypothesis is tested by measuring the lifespan of flies housed same‐sexually or mixed‐sexually under an LD 12 : 12 h photocycle at a constant temperature of 25 °C. The effect of housing wild‐type (Canton‐S) flies with period (per) circadian clock mutant flies is also examined because the mutant flies have different daily activity patterns. When males and females of wild‐type flies are housed together, their lifespan is substantially lengthened (males) or shortened (females) compared with same‐sex housed flies. The shortening of the lifespan in females is significantly enhanced when mated with per mutant males. The shortening effects are significantly reduced when the mixed‐sex interaction is limited for the first 5 days after emergence. A slight elongation in lifespan, rather than a reduction, occurs when wild‐type females are housed same‐sexually with per⁰ or per^L mutant flies. In male flies, the elongation of lifespan occurs not only when wild‐type males are housed with wild‐type, per⁰ or per^L females, but also when housed with per⁰ or per^S mutant males. Mixed‐sex couples always show altered daily locomotor rhythms with an enhanced night‐time activity, whereas same‐sex couples show daily behavioural profiles slightly altered but essentially similar to a sum of the respective two flies. No significant correlation is found between the lifespan and reproductive capacity. These results suggest that the alteration of daily activity rhythms and sexual interaction may have significant impact on the fly's lifespan.     

Erythritol ingestion impairs adult reproduction and causes larval mortality in Drosophila melanogaster fruit flies (Diptera: Drosophilidae)

Previous feeding studies showed the polyalcohol erythritol was toxic when ingested by adult laboratory fruit flies (Drosophila melanogaster). We asked whether erythritol could additionally affect fly population growth either through larval toxicity or through effects on adult reproduction. Females did not avoid laying on food substrates with 1M erythritol; laying rate on 1M erythritol food was similar to control food when females were given free‐choice access. Eggs laid or placed on 0.5 M to 2.5 M erythritol foods hatched at normal rates, suggesting erythritol was not toxic to eggs upon contact. Drosophila melanogaster larvae readily consumed food containing 1 M erythritol, but none of these larvae reached pupation. Longevity of larvae feeding on in 1 M erythritol food was significantly reduced relative to controls, and mean ± SE larval lifespan on erythritol was 1.54 ± 0.10 days (max. = 3 days). Exposing cohorts of second‐instar larvae to food with varying concentrations of erythritol showed the LD50 (at 24 hr) concentration was approximately 0.6 M. Taken together, these results suggest erythritol could be employed in effective larval‐sink baits. Adults flies fed with erythritol produced significantly fewer eggs on days when they fed on 1 M erythritol, and egg production was significantly reduced for one additional day after the adults were moved to control food. These findings suggest erythritol is rapid and effective at temporarily suppressing D. melanogaster reproduction, increasing its potential for use in effective insect population control.     

Variation in adult life history and stress resistance across five species of<Emphasis Type="Italic">Drosophila</Emphasis>

Dry weight at eclosion, adult lifespan, lifetime fecundity, lipid and carbohydrate content at eclosion, and starvation and desiccation resistance at eclosion were assayed on a long-term laboratory population ofDrosophila melanogaster, and one recently wild-caught population each of four other species ofDrosophila, two from themelanogaster and two from theimmigrans species group. The relationships among trait means across the five species did not conform to expectations based on correlations among these traits inferred from selection studies onD. melanogaster. In particular, the expected positive relationships between fecundity and size/lipid content, lipid content and starvation resistance, carbohydrate (glycogen) content and desiccation resistance, and the expected negative relationship between lifespan and fecundity were not observed. Most traits were strongly positively correlated between sexes across species, except for fractional lipid content and starvation resistance per microgram lipid. For most traits, there was evidence for significant sexual dimorphism but the degree of dimorphism did not vary across species except in the case of adult lifespan, starvation resistance per microgram lipid, and desiccation resistance per microgram carbohydrate. Overall,D. nasuta nasuta andD. sulfurigaster neonasuta (immigrans group) were heavier at eclosion than themelanogaster group species, and tended to have somewhat higher absolute lipid content and starvation resistance. Yet, these twoimmigrans group species were shorter-lived and had lower average daily fecundity than themelanogaster group species. The smallest species,D. malerkotliana (melanogaster group), had relatively high daily fecundity, intermediate lifespan and high fractional lipid content, especially in females.D. ananassae (melanogaster group) had the highest absolute and fractional carbohydrate content, but its desiccation resistance per microgram carbohydrate was the lowest among the five species. In terms of overall performance, the laboratory population ofD. melanogaster was clearly superior, under laboratory conditions, to the other four species if adult lifespan, lifetime fecundity, average daily fecundity, and absolute starvation and desiccation resistance are considered. This finding is contrary to several recent reports of substantially higher adult lifespan and stress resistance in recently wild-caught flies, relative to flies maintained for a long time in discretegeneration laboratory cultures. Possible explanations for these apparent anomalies are discussed in the context of the differing selection pressures likely to be experienced byDrosophila populations in laboratory versus wild environments. This paper is dedicated to the memory of our friend and former colleague Dr Hans Raj Negi, who tragically passed away at a very young age in a road accident in November 2003.     

Possible role of eclosion rhythm in mediating the effects of light-dark environments on pre-adult development in <Emphasis Type="Italic">Drosophila melanogaster</Emphasis>

Background  

In insects, circadian clocks have been implicated in affecting life history traits such as pre-adult development time and adult lifespan. Studies on the period (per) mutants of Drosophila melanogaster, and laboratory-selected lines of Bactrocera cucurbitae suggested a close link between circadian clocks and development time. There is a possibility of clock genes having pleiotropic effects on clock period and pre-adult development time. In order to avoid such pleiotropic effects we have used wild type flies of same genotype under environments of different periodicities, which phenotypically either speeded up or slowed down the eclosion clock of D. melanogaster.     

Sex‐specific life history responses to nymphal diet quality and immune status in a field cricket

Individual fitness is expected to benefit from earlier maturation at a larger body size and higher body condition. However, poor nutritional quality or high prevalence of disease make this difficult because individuals either cannot acquire sufficient resources or must divert resources to other fitness‐related traits such as immunity. Under such conditions, individuals are expected to mature later at a smaller body size and in poorer body condition. Moreover, the juvenile environment can also produce longer‐term effects on adult fitness by causing shifts in resource allocation strategies that could alter investment in immune function and affect adult lifespan. We manipulated diet quality and immune status of juvenile Texas field crickets, Gryllus texensis, to investigate how poor developmental conditions affect sex‐specific investment in fitness‐related traits. As predicted, a poor juvenile diet was related to smaller mass and body size at eclosion in both sexes. However, our results also reveal sexually dimorphic responses to different facets of the rearing environment: female life history decisions are affected more by diet quality, whereas males are affected more by immune status. We suggest that females respond to decreased nutritional income because this threatens their ability to achieve a large adult body size, whereas male fitness is more dependent on reaching adulthood and so they invest in immunity and survival to eclosion.     

Interactions between cytoplasmic and nuclear genomes confer sex‐specific effects on lifespan in Drosophila melanogaster

Genetic variation outside of the cell nucleus can affect the phenotype. The cytoplasm is home to the mitochondria, and in arthropods often hosts intracellular bacteria such as Wolbachia. Although numerous studies have implicated epistatic interactions between cytoplasmic and nuclear genetic variation as mediators of phenotypic expression, two questions remain. Firstly, it remains unclear whether outcomes of cyto‐nuclear interactions will manifest differently across the sexes, as might be predicted given that cytoplasmic genomes are screened by natural selection only through females as a consequence of their maternal inheritance. Secondly, the relative contribution of mitochondrial genetic variation to other cytoplasmic sources of variation, such as Wolbachia infection, in shaping phenotypic outcomes of cyto‐nuclear interactions remains unknown. Here, we address these questions, creating a fully crossed set of replicated cyto‐nuclear populations derived from three geographically distinct populations of Drosophila melanogaster, measuring the lifespan of males and females from each population. We observed that cyto‐nuclear interactions shape lifespan and that the outcomes of these interactions differ across the sexes. Yet, we found no evidence that placing the cytoplasms from one population alongside the nuclear background of others (generating putative cyto‐nuclear mismatches) leads to decreased lifespan in either sex. Although it was difficult to partition mitochondrial from Wolbachia effects, our results suggest at least some of the cytoplasmic genotypic contribution to lifespan was directly mediated by an effect of sequence variation in the mtDNA. Future work should explore the degree to which cyto‐nuclear interactions result in sex differences in the expression of other components of organismal life history.     

Terminal investment strategies following infection are dependent on diet

When future reproductive potential is threatened, for example following infection, the terminal investment hypothesis predicts that individuals will respond by investing preferentially in current reproduction. Terminal investment involves reallocating resources to current reproductive effort, so it is likely to be influenced by the quantity and quality of resources acquired through diet. Dietary protein specifically has been shown to impact both immunity and reproduction in a range of organisms, but its impact on terminal investment is unclear. We challenged females from ten naturally derived fruit fly (Drosophila melanogaster) genotypes with the bacterial pathogen Pseudomonas aeruginosa. We then placed these on either a standard or isocaloric high‐protein diet, and measured multiple components of reproductive investment. As oogenesis requires protein, and flies increase egg production with protein intake, we hypothesized that terminal investment would be easier to observe if protein was not already limiting. Oral exposure to the pathogen triggered an increase in reproductive investment. However, whereas flies feeding on a high‐protein diet increased the number of eggs laid when exposed to P. aeruginosa, those fed the standard diet did not increase the number of eggs laid but increased egg‐to‐adult viability following infection. This suggests that the specific routes through which flies terminally invest are influenced by the protein content of the maternal diet. We discuss the importance of considering diet and natural routes of infection when measuring nonimmunological defences.     

The role of lipid metabolism in aging,lifespan regulation,and age‐related disease

An emerging body of data suggests that lipid metabolism has an important role to play in the aging process. Indeed, a plethora of dietary, pharmacological, genetic, and surgical lipid‐related interventions extend lifespan in nematodes, fruit flies, mice, and rats. For example, the impairment of genes involved in ceramide and sphingolipid synthesis extends lifespan in both worms and flies. The overexpression of fatty acid amide hydrolase or lysosomal lipase prolongs life in Caenorhabditis elegans, while the overexpression of diacylglycerol lipase enhances longevity in both C. elegans and Drosophila melanogaster. The surgical removal of adipose tissue extends lifespan in rats, and increased expression of apolipoprotein D enhances survival in both flies and mice. Mouse lifespan can be additionally extended by the genetic deletion of diacylglycerol acyltransferase 1, treatment with the steroid 17‐α‐estradiol, or a ketogenic diet. Moreover, deletion of the phospholipase A2 receptor improves various healthspan parameters in a progeria mouse model. Genome‐wide association studies have found several lipid‐related variants to be associated with human aging. For example, the epsilon 2 and epsilon 4 alleles of apolipoprotein E are associated with extreme longevity and late‐onset neurodegenerative disease, respectively. In humans, blood triglyceride levels tend to increase, while blood lysophosphatidylcholine levels tend to decrease with age. Specific sphingolipid and phospholipid blood profiles have also been shown to change with age and are associated with exceptional human longevity. These data suggest that lipid‐related interventions may improve human healthspan and that blood lipids likely represent a rich source of human aging biomarkers.     

Natural variation in the contribution of microbial density to inducible immune dynamics

Immune responses evolve to balance the benefits of microbial killing against the costs of autoimmunity and energetic resource use. Models that explore the evolution of optimal immune responses generally include a term for constitutive immunity, or the level of immunological investment prior to microbial exposure, and for inducible immunity, or investment in immune function after microbial challenge. However, studies rarely consider the functional form of inducible immune responses with respect to microbial density, despite the theoretical dependence of immune system evolution on microbe‐ versus immune‐mediated damage to the host. In this study, we analyse antimicrobial peptide (AMP) gene expression from seven wild‐caught flour beetle populations (Tribolium spp.) during acute infection with the virulent bacteria Bacillus thuringiensis (Bt) and Photorhabdus luminescens (P.lum) to demonstrate that inducible immune responses mediated by the humoral IMD pathway exhibit natural variation in both microbe density‐dependent and independent temporal dynamics. Beetle populations that exhibited greater AMP expression sensitivity to Bt density were also more likely to die from infection, while populations that exhibited higher microbe density‐independent AMP expression were more likely to survive P. luminescens infection. Reduction in pathway signalling efficiency through RNAi‐mediated knockdown of the imd gene reduced the magnitude of both microbe‐independent and dependent responses and reduced host resistance to Bt growth, but had no net effect on host survival. This study provides a framework for understanding natural variation in the flexibility of investment in inducible immune responses and should inform theory on the contribution of nonequilibrium host‐microbe dynamics to immune system evolution.     

Effects of macronutrient intake on the lifespan and fecundity of the marula fruit fly,Ceratitis cosyra (Tephritidae): Extreme lifespan in a host specialist

In insects, lifespan and reproduction are strongly associated with nutrition. The ratio and amount of nutrients individuals consume affect their life expectancy and reproductive investment. The geometric framework (GF) enables us to explore how animals regulate their intake of multiple nutrients simultaneously and determine how these nutrients interact to affect life‐history traits of interest. Studies using the GF on host‐generalist tephritid flies have highlighted trade‐offs between longevity and reproductive effort in females, mediated by the protein‐to‐carbohydrate (P:C) ratio that individuals consume. Here, we tested how P and C intake affect lifespan (LS) in both sexes, and female lifetime (LEP), and daily (DEP) egg production, in Ceratitis cosyra, a host‐specialist tephritid fly. We then determined the P:C ratio that C. cosyra defends when offered a choice of foods. Female LS was optimized at a 0:1 P:C ratio, whereas to maximize their fecundity, females needed to consume a higher P:C ratio (LEP = 1:6 P:C; DEP = 1:2.5 P:C). In males, LS was also optimized at a low P:C ratio of 1:10. However, when given the opportunity to regulate their intake, both sexes actively defended a 1:3 P:C ratio, which is closer to the target for DEP than either LS or LEP. Our results show that female C. cosyra experienced a moderate trade‐off between LS and fecundity. Moreover, the diets that maximized expression of LEP and DEP were of lower P:C ratio than those required for optimal expression of these traits in host‐generalist tephritids or other generalist insects.     

Conservation of social effects (Ψ) between two species of Drosophila despite reversal of sexual dimorphism

Indirect genetic effects (IGEs) describe the effect of the genes of social partners on the phenotype of a focal individual. Here, we measure indirect genetic effects using the “coefficient of interaction” (Ψ) to test whether Ψ evolved between Drosophila melanogaster and D. simulans. We compare Ψ for locomotion between ethanol and nonethanol environments in both species, but only D. melanogaster utilizes ethanol ecologically. We find that while sexual dimorphism for locomotion has been reversed in D. simulans, there has been no evolution of social effects between these two species. What did evolve was the interaction between genotype‐specific Ψ and the environment, as D. melanogaster varies unpredictably between environments and D. simulans does not. In this system, this suggests evolutionary lability of sexual dimorphism but a conservation of social effects, which brings forth interesting questions about the role of the social environment in sexual selection.     

Dietary restriction affects lifespan but not cognitive aging in Drosophila melanogaster

Dietary restriction extends lifespan in a wide variety of animals, including Drosophila, but its relationship to functional and cognitive aging is unclear. Here, we study the effects of dietary yeast content on fly performance in an aversive learning task (association between odor and mechanical shock). Learning performance declined at old age, but 50‐day‐old dietary‐restricted flies learned as poorly as equal‐aged flies maintained on yeast‐rich diet, even though the former lived on average 9 days (14%) longer. Furthermore, at the middle age of 21 days, flies on low‐yeast diets showed poorer short‐term (5 min) memory than flies on rich diet. In contrast, dietary restriction enhanced 60‐min memory of young (5 days old) flies. Thus, while dietary restriction had complex effects on learning performance in young to middle‐aged flies, it did not attenuate aging‐related decline of aversive learning performance. These results are consistent with the hypothesis that, in Drosophila, dietary restriction reduces mortality and thus leads to lifespan extension, but does not affect the rate with which somatic damage relevant for cognitive performance accumulates with age.     

EFFECTS OF OXYGEN CONCENTRATION AND PRESSURE ON Drosophila melanogaster: OXIDATIVE STRESS,MITOCHONDRIAL ACTIVITY,AND SURVIVORSHIP

Organisms are known to be equipped with an adaptive plasticity as the phenotype of traits in response to the imposed environmental challenges as they grow and develop. In this study, the effects of extreme changes in oxygen availability and atmospheric pressure on physiological phenotypes of Drosophila melanogaster were investigated to explore adaptation mechanisms. The changes in citrate synthase activity (CSA), lifespan, and behavioral function in different atmospheric conditions were evaluated. In the CAS test, hyperoxia significantly increased CSA; both hypoxia and hyperbaric conditions caused a significant decrease in CSA. In the survivorship test, all changed atmospheric conditions caused a significant reduction in lifespan. The lifespan reduced more after hypoxia exposure than after hyperbaria exposure. In behavioral function test, when mechanical agitation was conducted, bang‐sensitive flies showed a stereotypical sequence of initial muscle spasm, paralysis, and recovery. The percentage of individuals that displayed paralysis or seizure was measured on the following day and after 2 weeks from each exposure. The majority of flies showed seizure behavior 15 days after exposure, especially after 3 h of exposure. The percentage of individuals that did not undergo paralysis or seizure and was able to move in the vial, was also tested. The number of flies that moved and raised the higher level of the vial decreased after exposure. Animal's speed decreased significantly 15 days after exposure to extreme environmental conditions. In summary, the alteration of oxygen availability and atmospheric pressure may lead to significant changes in mitochondria mass, lifespan, and behavioral function in D. melanogaster.     

Correlated responses in basal immune function in response to selection for fast development in Drosophila melanogaster

Often, immunity is invoked in the context of infection, disease and injury. However, an ever alert and robust immune system is essential for maintaining good health, but resource investment into immunity needs to be traded off against allocation to other functions. In this study, we study the consequences of such a trade-off with growth by ascertaining various components of baseline innate immunity in two types of Drosophila melanogaster populations selected for fast development, in combination with either a long effective lifespan (FLJs) or a short effective lifespan (FEJs). We found that distinct immunological parameters were constitutively elevated in both, FLJs and FEJs compared to their ancestral control (JB) populations, and these constitutive elevated immunological parameters were associated with reduced insulin signalling and comparable total gut microbiota. Our results bring into focus the inter-relationship between egg to adult development time, ecdysone levels, larval gut microbiota, insulin signalling, adult reproductive longevity and immune function. We discuss how changes in selection pressures operating on life-history traits can modulate different components of immune system.     

Drosophila rely on learning while foraging under semi‐natural conditions

Learning is predicted to affect manifold ecological and evolutionary processes, but the extent to which animals rely on learning in nature remains poorly known, especially for short‐lived non‐social invertebrates. This is in particular the case for Drosophila, a favourite laboratory system to study molecular mechanisms of learning. Here we tested whether Drosophila melanogaster use learned information to choose food while free‐flying in a large greenhouse emulating the natural environment. In a series of experiments flies were first given an opportunity to learn which of two food odours was associated with good versus unpalatable taste; subsequently, their preference for the two odours was assessed with olfactory traps set up in the greenhouse. Flies that had experienced palatable apple‐flavoured food and unpalatable orange‐flavoured food were more likely to be attracted to the odour of apple than flies with the opposite experience. This was true both when the flies first learned in the laboratory and were then released and recaptured in the greenhouse, and when the learning occurred under free‐flying conditions in the greenhouse. Furthermore, flies retained the memory of their experience while exploring the greenhouse overnight in the absence of focal odours, pointing to the involvement of consolidated memory. These results support the notion that even small, short lived insects which are not central‐place foragers make use of learned cues in their natural environments.