scholarly journals A dietary sterol trade-off determines lifespan responses to dietary restriction in Drosophila melanogaster females

eLife ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 10 ◽  
Author(s):  
Brooke Zanco ◽  
Christen K Mirth ◽  
Carla M Sgrò ◽  
Matthew DW Piper
Keyword(s):  
Drosophila Melanogaster ◽  
Dietary Restriction ◽  
Dietary Protein ◽  
Life Histories ◽  
Important Principle ◽  
Trade Offs ◽  
Dietary Sterol ◽  
Mechanistic Basis ◽  
Dietary Sterols

Diet plays a significant role in maintaining lifelong health. In particular, lowering the dietary protein: carbohydrate ratio can improve lifespan. This has been interpreted as a direct effect of these macronutrients on physiology. Using Drosophila melanogaster, we show that the role of protein and carbohydrate on lifespan is indirect, acting by altering the partitioning of limiting amounts of dietary sterols between reproduction and lifespan. Shorter lifespans in flies fed on high protein: carbohydrate diets can be rescued by supplementing their food with cholesterol. Not only does this fundamentally alter the way we interpret the mechanisms of lifespan extension by dietary restriction, these data highlight the important principle that life histories can be affected by nutrient-dependent trade-offs that are indirect and independent of the nutrients (often macronutrients) that are the focus of study. This brings us closer to understanding the mechanistic basis of dietary restriction.

scholarly journals A dietary sterol trade off determines lifespan responses to dietary restriction in Drosophila melanogaster

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Brooke Zanco ◽  
Christen K. Mirth ◽  
Carla M. Sgrò ◽  
Matthew D.W. Piper
Keyword(s):  
Drosophila Melanogaster ◽  
Dietary Restriction ◽  
Dietary Protein ◽  
Life Histories ◽  
Important Principle ◽  
Trade Offs ◽  
Dietary Sterol ◽  
Mechanistic Basis ◽  
Dietary Sterols

AbstractDiet plays a significant role in maintaining lifelong health. In particular, lowering the dietary protein : carbohydrate ratio can improve lifespan. This has been interpreted as a direct effect of these macronutrients on physiology. Using Drosophila melanogaster, we show that the role of protein and carbohydrate on lifespan is indirect, acting by altering the partitioning of limiting amounts of dietary sterols between reproduction and lifespan. Shorter lifespans in flies fed on high protein : carbohydrate diets can be rescued by supplementing their food with cholesterol. Not only does this fundamentally alter the way we interpret the mechanisms of lifespan extension by dietary restriction, these data highlight the important principle that life histories can be affected by nutrient-dependent trade-offs that are indirect and independent of the nutrients (often macronutrients) that are the focus of study. This brings us closer to understanding the mechanistic basis of dietary restriction.

Hormones and Behavior

2019 ◽  
pp. 11-26
Author(s):  
Maren N. Vitousek ◽  
Laura A. Schoenle
Keyword(s):  
Life History ◽  
Life Histories ◽  
Life History Traits ◽  
Developmental Plasticity ◽  
Endocrine System ◽  
Phenotypic Traits ◽  
Social Environments ◽  
Trade Offs ◽  
And Behavior

Hormones mediate the expression of life history traits—phenotypic traits that contribute to lifetime fitness (i.e., reproductive timing, growth rate, number and size of offspring). The endocrine system shapes phenotype by organizing tissues during developmental periods and by activating changes in behavior, physiology, and morphology in response to varying physical and social environments. Because hormones can simultaneously regulate many traits (hormonal pleiotropy), they are important mediators of life history trade-offs among growth, reproduction, and survival. This chapter reviews the role of hormones in shaping life histories with an emphasis on developmental plasticity and reversible flexibility in endocrine and life history traits. It also discusses the advantages of studying hormone–behavior interactions from an evolutionary perspective. Recent research in evolutionary endocrinology has provided insight into the heritability of endocrine traits, how selection on hormone systems may influence the evolution of life histories, and the role of hormonal pleiotropy in driving or constraining evolution.

scholarly journals Evaluating Effects of a Critical Micronutrient (24-Methylenecholesterol) on Honey Bee Physiology

2019 ◽  
Vol 113 (3) ◽  
pp. 176-182 ◽  
Author(s):  
Priyadarshini Chakrabarti ◽  
Hannah M Lucas ◽  
Ramesh R Sagili
Keyword(s):  
Honey Bee ◽  
Honey Bees ◽  
Building Blocks ◽  
Vital Role ◽  
Pollinator Decline ◽  
Nutritional Physiology ◽  
Dietary Sterol ◽  
Dry Diet ◽  
Dietary Sterols

Abstract Although poor nutrition is cited as one of the crucial factors in global pollinator decline, the requirements and role of several important nutrients (especially micronutrients) in honey bees are not well understood. Micronutrients, viz. phytosterols, play a physiologically vital role in insects as precursors of important molting hormones and building blocks of cellular membranes. There is a gap in comprehensive understanding of the impacts of dietary sterols on honey bee physiology. In the present study, we investigated the role of 24-methylenecholesterol—a key phytosterol—in honey bee nutritional physiology. Artificial diets with varying concentrations of 24-methylenecholesterol (0%, 0.1%. 0.25%, 0.5%, 0.75%, and 1% dry diet weight) were formulated and fed to honey bees in a laboratory cage experiment. Survival, diet consumption, head protein content, and abdominal lipid contents were significantly higher in dietary sterol-supplemented bees. Our findings provide additional insights regarding the role of this important sterol in honey bee nutritional physiology. The insights gleaned from this study could also advance the understanding of sterol metabolism and regulation in other bee species that are dependent on pollen for sterols, and assist in formulation of a more complete artificial diet for honey bees (Apis mellifera Linnaeus, 1758) (Hymenoptera: Apidae).

scholarly journals Redox physiology in animal function: The struggle of living in an oxidant environment

2010 ◽  
Vol 56 (6) ◽  
pp. 687-702 ◽  
Author(s):  
David Costantini
Keyword(s):  
Oxidative Stress ◽  
Life Histories ◽  
Evolutionary Ecology ◽  
Life History Strategies ◽  
Ecological Studies ◽  
Oxidative Balance ◽  
Fitness Traits ◽  
Trade Offs ◽  
Strong Focus

Abstract A strong focus of ecological research for several decades has been to understand the factors underlying the variation in animal life-histories. In recent times, ecological studies have begun to show that oxidative stress may represent another important modulator of competitive trade-offs among fitness traits or of positively integrated patterns of traits. Therefore, incorporating mechanisms underlying oxidative physiology into evolutionary ecology has the potential to help understand variation in life-history strategies. In this review, I provide a general overview of oxidative stress physiology, and subsequently focus on topics that have been neglected in previous ecological reviews on oxidative stress. Specifically, I introduce and discuss the adaptations that animals have evolved to cope with oxidative stress; the environmental stressors that can generate changes in oxidative balance; the role of reactive species in transduction of environmental stimuli and cell signaling; and the range of hormetic responses to oxidative stress.

scholarly journals The hidden costs of dietary restriction: implications for its evolutionary and mechanistic origins

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Andrew W McCracken ◽  
Gracie Adams ◽  
Laura Hartshorne ◽  
Mirre J. P. Simons
Keyword(s):  
Dietary Restriction ◽  
Resource Availability ◽  
Dietary Protein ◽  
Physiological Response ◽  
Large Scale ◽  
Biomedical Science ◽  
Molecular Pathways ◽  
Demographic Approach ◽  
Mechanistic Basis ◽  
Formal Test

AbstractDietary restriction (DR) consistently and universally extends health-and lifespan across taxa. Despite efforts to uncover the mechanisms underpinning DR - and ultimately translate its beneficial outcomes to humans - precise and universal mechanisms have not been identified. In biomedical science, the effects of DR are interpreted as regulating pro-longevity molecular pathways. This reasoning is guided by the conviction that DR evolved as an adaptive, pro-longevity physiological response to restricted food intake. Current evolutionary theory states that organisms should invest in their soma more heavily during periods of DR, and, when their resource availability improves, should outcompete age-matched rich-fed controls in survival and/or reproduction. Here we present a formal test of these key predictions utilising a large-scale demographic approach detailing mortality and fecundity in Drosophila melanogaster fed alternating dietary regimes (N > 66,000 flies across 11 genetic lines). Our experiments reveal surprising and substantial mortality costs when returning to a rich diet after periods of DR. These results suggest the effects of DR are not necessarily intrinsically pro-longevity and could be considered an escape from costs incurred under nutrient-rich conditions, in addition to novel, discrete costs associated with restricting dietary protein. These insights question the relevance of current evolutionary explanations of DR in interpreting the mechanistic basis of dietary restriction.

scholarly journals EVOLUTION OF TRADE-OFFS BETWEEN SEXUAL AND ASEXUAL PHASES AND THE ROLE OF REPRODUCTIVE PLASTICITY IN THE GENETIC ARCHITECTURE OF APHID LIFE HISTORIES

Evolution ◽  
2009 ◽  
Vol 63 (9) ◽  
pp. 2402-2412 ◽  
Author(s):  
Roberto F. Nespolo ◽  
Fabien Halkett ◽  
Christian C. Figueroa ◽  
Manuel Plantegenest ◽  
Jean-Christophe Simon
Keyword(s):  
Life Histories ◽  
Genetic Architecture ◽  
Trade Offs ◽  
Reproductive Plasticity

scholarly journals Drosophila melanogaster females prioritise dietary sterols for producing high quality eggs

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Brooke Zanco ◽  
Lisa Rapley ◽  
Joshua N Johnstone ◽  
Amy Dedman ◽  
Christen Mirth ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Drosophila Melanogaster ◽  
Dietary Restriction ◽  
Egg Production ◽  
High Quality ◽  
Long Life ◽  
Dietary Sterols

Limiting calories or specific nutrients without malnutrition, otherwise known as dietary restriction (DR), has been shown to extend lifespan across a broad range of taxa. Our recent findings in Drosophila melanogaster show that supplementing flies on macronutrient-rich diets with additional cholesterol can extend lifespan to the same extent as DR. Macronutrient-rich diets drive high levels of egg production and in doing so deplete the mothers of somatic sterols that are essential for survival. Thus, DR may be beneficial for lifespan because it reduces egg production which in turn reduces the mother's demand for sterols. If this is true, mothers must be prioritising their available sterols, whether from the diet or from their own bodies, to sustain high quality egg production. To test this, we measured the quality of eggs laid by mothers fed either cholesterol-sufficient or cholesterol-depleted diets. We found that even when the mother's diet was completely devoid of cholesterol, high quality egg production persisted. Furthermore, we show that sterol-supplemented flies with long lives continue to lay high quality eggs that give rise to healthy offspring. Thus, in our assays, long life does not require a fecundity cost.

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