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Published June 10, 1997 | Published
Journal Article Open

Drosophila drop-dead mutations accelerate the time course of age-related markers

Abstract

Mutations of the drop-dead gene in Drosophila melanogaster lead to striking early death of the adult animal. At different times, after emergence from the pupa, individual flies begin to stagger and, shortly thereafter, die. Anatomical examination reveals gross neuropathological lesions in the brain. The life span of flies mutant for the drop-dead gene is four to five times shorter than for normal adults. That raises the question whether loss of the normal gene product might set into motion a series of events typical of the normal aging process. We used molecular markers, the expression patterns of which, in normal flies, change with age in a manner that correlates with life span. In the drop-dead mutant, there is an acceleration in the temporal pattern of expression of these age-related markers.

Additional Information

© 1997 by The National Academy of Sciences. Contributed by Seymour Benzer, April 4, 1997. We are grateful to Joseph Jack, Deborah Foster, William Orr, Robert Reenan, Marvin Tanzer, and members of the Benzer laboratory for helpful discussions and critical reading of the manuscript. This work was supported by a fellowship to B.R. from The Donaghue Medical Research Foundation, the Sandoz Foundation for Gerontological Research, and the National Institute of Aging-supported Claude Pepper Older Americans Independence Center at the Travelers Center on Aging of the University of Connecticut Health Center, by grants to S.L.H. from the National Science Foundation (IBN- 9122097), the American Federation for Aging Research, the Sandoz Foundation for Gerontological Research, and the Shock Aging Research Foundation. Support to S.B. was from the National Science Foundation (MCB 9408718), the National Institutes of Health (AG 12289 and EY 09278), the McKnight Foundation, and the James G. Boswell Foundation. The publication costs of this article were defrayed in part by page charge payment. This article must therefore be hereby marked ''advertisement'' in accordance with 18 U.S.C. §1734 solely to indicate this fact.

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August 19, 2023
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