Dietary composition specifies consumption, obesity, and lifespan in Drosophila melanogaster
Top Cited Papers
Open Access
- 10 July 2008
- journal article
- Published by Wiley in Aging Cell
- Vol. 7 (4), 478-490
- https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1474-9726.2008.00400.x
Abstract
The inability to properly balance energy intake and expenditure with nutrient supply forms the basis for some of today's most pressing health issues, including diabetes and obesity. Mechanisms of nutrient homeostasis may also lie at the root of dietary restriction, a manipulation whereby reduced nutrient availability extends lifespan and ameliorates age-related deteriorations in many species. The traditional belief that the most important aspect of the diet is its energetic (i.e. caloric) content is currently under scrutiny. Hypotheses that focus on diet composition and highlight more subtle characteristics are beginning to emerge. Using Drosophila melanogaster, we asked whether diet composition alone, independent of its caloric content, was sufficient to impact behavior, physiology, and lifespan. We found that providing flies with a yeast-rich diet produced lean, reproductively competent animals with reduced feeding rates. Excess dietary sugar, on the other hand, promoted obesity, which was magnified during aging. Addition of dietary yeast often limited or reversed the phenotypic changes associated with increased dietary sugar and vice versa, and dietary imbalance was associated with reduced lifespan. Our data reveal that diet composition, alone and in combination with overall caloric intake, modulates lifespan, consumption, and fat deposition in flies, and they provide a useful foundation for dissecting the underlying genetic mechanisms that link specific nutrients with important aspects of general health and longevity.Keywords
This publication has 51 references indexed in Scilit:
- Lifespan and reproduction in Drosophila : New insights from nutritional geometryProceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, 2008
- Drosophila lifespan control by dietary restriction independent of insulin‐like signalingAging Cell, 2008
- An AMPK-FOXO Pathway Mediates Longevity Induced by a Novel Method of Dietary Restriction in C. elegansCurrent Biology, 2007
- Prandiology of Drosophila and the CAFE assayProceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, 2007
- Dual Lipolytic Control of Body Fat Storage and Mobilization in DrosophilaPLoS Biology, 2007
- Dietary Restriction in Drosophila: Delayed Aging or Experimental Artefact?PLoS Genetics, 2007
- Dietary deprivation extends lifespan in Caenorhabditis elegansAging Cell, 2006
- Evolving resistance to obesity in an insectProceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, 2006
- Overview of caloric restriction and ageingMechanisms of Ageing and Development, 2005
- Calories Do Not Explain Extension of Life Span by Dietary Restriction in DrosophilaPLoS Biology, 2005