Effect of Density on Age-specific Mortality in Drosophila: a Density Supplementation Experiment

Overview

Journal Genetica

Specialties Cell Biology
Genetics

Date 1996 Jul 1

PMID 8765679

Citations 7

Authors

A A Khazaeli

L Xiu

J W Curtsinger

Affiliations

Soon will be listed here.

Abstract

Age-specific mortality rates were studied at two adult density levels in four inbred lines of Drosophila melanogaster. In experimental populations, adult densities were maintained at constant levels throughout the experiment by replacing dead flies with live, marked mutants. In control populations, densities declined naturally as the cohorts aged. For all experimental populations the best mortality model is the two-stage Gompertz model, with slower mortality acceleration at older ages. Flies in the experimental populations generally lived longer than flies in control populations, regardless of sex, genotype, or initial density level. The data demonstrate that deceleration of age-specific mortality rates at older ages is not caused by declining cohort densities. Mortality deceleration is a real phenomenon that raises serious questions about the evolution of senescence.

Citing Articles

The Gompertz Law emerges naturally from the inter-dependencies between sub-components in complex organisms.

Nielsen P, Jensen M, Mitarai N, Bhatt S Sci Rep. 2024; 14(1):1196.

PMID: 38216698 PMC: 10786855. DOI: 10.1038/s41598-024-51669-5.

Genetic and social contributions to sex differences in lifespan in Drosophila serrata.

Narayan V, Wilson A, Chenoweth S J Evol Biol. 2022; 35(4):657-663.

PMID: 35290690 PMC: 9314142. DOI: 10.1111/jeb.13992.

What is Aging?.

Rose M, Flatt T, Graves J, Greer L, Martinez D, Matos M Front Genet. 2012; 3:134.

PMID: 22833755 PMC: 3400891. DOI: 10.3389/fgene.2012.00134.

Evolution of ageing since Darwin.

Rose M, Burke M, Shahrestani P, Mueller L J Genet. 2009; 87(4):363-71.

PMID: 19147926 DOI: 10.1007/s12041-008-0059-6.

Age specificity of inbreeding load in Drosophila melanogaster and implications for the evolution of late-life mortality plateaus.

Reynolds R, Temiyasathit S, Reedy M, Ruedi E, M Drnevich J, Leips J Genetics. 2007; 177(1):587-95.

PMID: 17660577 PMC: 2013709. DOI: 10.1534/genetics.106.070078.

References

Khazaeli A, Xiu L, Curtsinger J . Stress experiments as a means of investigating age-specific mortality in Drosophila melanogaster. Exp Gerontol. 1995; 30(2):177-84. DOI: 10.1016/0531-5565(94)00058-1. View

Fukui H, Xiu L, Curtsinger J . Slowing of age-specific mortality rates in Drosophila melanogaster. Exp Gerontol. 1993; 28(6):585-99. DOI: 10.1016/0531-5565(93)90048-i. View

Kowald A, Kirkwood T . Explaining fruit fly longevity. Science. 1993; 260(5114):1664-5; author reply 1665-6. DOI: 10.1126/science.8503014. View

Graves Jr J, Mueller L . Population density effects on longevity. Genetica. 1993; 91(1-3):99-109. DOI: 10.1007/BF01435991. View

Khazaeli A, Xiu L, Curtsinger J . Effect of adult cohort density on age-specific mortality in Drosophila melanogaster. J Gerontol A Biol Sci Med Sci. 1995; 50(5):B262-9. DOI: 10.1093/gerona/50a.5.b262. View

Robine J, Ritchie K . Explaining fruit fly longevity. Science. 1993; 260(5114):1665; author reply 1665-6. DOI: 10.1126/science.8503015. View

Vaupel J, Johnson T, Lithgow G . Rates of mortality in populations of Caenorhabditis elegans. Science. 1994; 266(5186):826; author reply 828. DOI: 10.1126/science.7973641. View

Curtsinger J, Fukui H, Townsend D, Vaupel J . Demography of genotypes: failure of the limited life-span paradigm in Drosophila melanogaster. Science. 1992; 258(5081):461-3. DOI: 10.1126/science.1411541. View

Clark A, Guadalupe R . Probing the evolution of senescence in Drosophila melanogaster with P-element tagging. Genetica. 1995; 96(3):225-34. DOI: 10.1007/BF01439576. View

10.

Curtsinger J, Fukui H, Khazaeli A, Kirscher A, Pletcher S, Promislow D . Genetic variation and aging. Annu Rev Genet. 1995; 29:553-75. DOI: 10.1146/annurev.ge.29.120195.003005. View

11.

Carey J, Liedo P, Orozco D, Vaupel J . Slowing of mortality rates at older ages in large medfly cohorts. Science. 1992; 258(5081):457-61. DOI: 10.1126/science.1411540. View

12.

Weber K, Diggins L . Increased selection response in larger populations. II. Selection for ethanol vapor resistance in Drosophila melanogaster at two population sizes. Genetics. 1990; 125(3):585-97. PMC: 1204085. DOI: 10.1093/genetics/125.3.585. View

13.

Brooks A, Lithgow G, Johnson T . Mortality rates in a genetically heterogeneous population of Caenorhabditis elegans. Science. 1994; 263(5147):668-71. DOI: 10.1126/science.8303273. View

14.

Vaupel J, Carey J . Compositional interpretations of medfly mortality. Science. 1993; 260(5114):1666-7. DOI: 10.1126/science.8503016. View

15.

Curtsinger J . Density and age-specific mortality. Genetica. 1995; 96(3):179-82; discussion 183-6, 187-9. DOI: 10.1007/BF01439569. View

16.

Nusbaum T, Graves J, Mueller L, Rose M . Fruit fly aging and mortality. Science. 1993; 260(5114):1567; author reply 1567-9. DOI: 10.1126/science.8503001. View

17.

Fukui H, Ackert L, Curtsinger J . Deceleration of age-specific mortality rates in chromosomal homozygotes and heterozygotes of Drosophila melanogaster. Exp Gerontol. 1996; 31(4):517-31. DOI: 10.1016/0531-5565(95)02069-1. View