These tools will no longer be maintained as of December 31, 2024. Archived website can be found here. PubMed4Hh GitHub repository can be found here. Contact NLM Customer Service if you have questions.


Pubmed for Handhelds

PUBMED FOR HANDHELDS

Search MEDLINE/PubMed

  • Title: Extended longevity lines of Drosophila melanogaster: abundance of yolk protein gene mRNA in fat body and ovary.
    Author: Carlson KA, Harshman LG.
    Journal: Exp Gerontol; 1999 Apr; 34(2):173-84. PubMed ID: 10363785.
    Abstract:
    Lines of Drosophila melanogaster selected for late-life female reproduction typically exhibit correlated responses of reduced early fecundity and increased longevity. This relationship suggests a tradeoff between reproductive effort and somatic maintenance, which in turn, underlies some evolutionary theories of senescence. The mechanistic basis of the apparent tradeoff between increased longevity and reduced early-age fecundity has remained obscure. The present manuscript addresses the issues of whether the reduced early-age fecundity in selected lines corresponds to reduced yolk-protein mRNA production, and whether long-lived flies exhibit somatic maintenance in terms of relatively reduced yolk-protein mRNA production in the fat body. Yolk protein is one of the most abundant proteins used for female reproduction. By comparing a set of lines selected for late life reproduction with the corresponding control lines, we show that that yolk-protein gene mRNA relative abundance during the first four days posteclosion did not correspond to reduced early-life fecundity in the selected lines. In D. melanogaster, yolk protein is produced in the fat body and ovarian follicle cells. On the fourth day posteclosion, relatively more yolk-protein gene mRNA was present in the fat body. On day 1 posteclosion, supplemental yeast did not alter relative yolk-protein gene mRNA abundance. However, on day 4 posteclosion, supplemental yeast stimulated yolk-protein gene mRNA production in the fat body, which suggests an underlying mechanism for the nutrition-based phenotypic plasticity of fecundity previously documented in these lines. On medium without supplemental yeast, the relatively low abundance of fat body yolk-protein gene mRNA in the selected lines on day 4 posteclosion corresponds to a prediction derived from the disposable soma theory.
    [Abstract] [Full Text] [Related] [New Search]