Steroid Control of Longevity in Drosophila melanogaster

Creators: Simon, Anne F.; Shih, Cindy; Mack, Antha; Benzer, Seymour

Abstract

Ecdysone, the major steroid hormone of Drosophila melanogaster, is known for its role in development and reproduction. Flies that are heterozygous for mutations of the ecdysone receptor exhibit increases in life-span and resistance to various stresses, with no apparent deficit in fertility or activity. A mutant involved in the biosynthesis of ecdysone displays similar effects, which are suppressed by feeding ecdysone to the flies. These observations demonstrate the importance of the ecdysone hormonal pathway, a new player in regulating longevity.

Additional Information

© 2003 American Association for the Advancement of Science. Received 18 November 2002; accepted 24 December 2002. We thank P. Kazemi-Esfarjani, D. Tracey, D. Walker, P. Kapahi, H.-D. Wang, D. Liang, T. Brummel, M. Dus, M. Tatar, and R. Owen for helpful discussions and comments on the manuscript; G. Lorden and S. Metchev for advice on statistical analysis; and A. Dinh and A. Gomez for technical help. EcR mutants and the parental cn bw line were provided by M. Bender, DTS-3 mutants by P. Maróy, the Samarkand line by the Bloomington Stock center, and 20-OH-ecdysone by R. Laffont. Supported by a California Institute of Technology Surf scholarship to C.S., a postdoctoral fellowship from the John Douglas French Alzheimer's Foundation Research and a postdoctoral research grant from the American Federation for Aging Research (2002 Glenn/AFAR) to A.F.S., and grants to S.B. from NIH (grant AG16630), NSF (grant MCB-9907939), and the Ellison Foundation.

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