Convergent approach to the study of longevity of Ceratitis capitata and Drosophila melanogaster males

QUESADA-ALLUÉ L.A.; RABOSSI A.; PÉREZ M.M.; BOCHICCHIO, PABLO A.

Salta

Congreso; LV Reunión Anual Sociedad Argentina de Investigación en Bioquímica y Biología Molecular (SAIB)- XIV PABMB; 2019

SAIB-PABMB

Our main objective is to correlate the physiological and gene expression profiles from fly males showing unusual longevity. We studied two classical models for senescence profiles: the Medfly C. capitata and the vinegar fly D. melanogaster. We developed laboratory studies of behavioral parameters of male medflies in a novel arena containing lek-like arrangements of three flies. We were able to determine that young males showing none or very low rate of spontaneous supine falls (VLS males), in addition to show significant higher adult mean life expectancy (46.9 days of VLS males instead 27.1 days of supine males:), were significantly more longevous. Thus, we considered the supine behavior as a longevity predictor. We then studied the longevous and non-longevous male gene expression. In a completely different but convergent approach, we studied for the first time, the physiological characteristics and adult senescence profiles of the D. melanogaster mutant tan-1, unable to hydrolize N-β-alanyl-dopamine; that were compared to those of wild type Canton-S and mutant ebony-1 (unable to synthesize N-β-alanyl-dopamine). We then demonstrated that tan-1 was significantly longevous (up to 75.7 days-old instead of WT 60.8 days and 58.8 days of ebony-1). When performing qPCR studies in these peculiar longevous flies, the results showed that, as somehow expected, the expression of ?antioxidant? genes in tan-1 was higher than the one in wt (1.5 fold increase SOD-2 mRNA and 2-fold increase in Catalase expression). Strikingly, we found that in VLS male Medflies the expression of these enzymes was normal but was enhanced in ?Supine? males. When the expression from VLS and normal Medfly male brains was compared, with RNASeq studies, the results revealed that other key genes significantly changed more than 2.5 times in longevous flies; thus pointing to a polygenic contribution to longevity, as also expected. Most significant were xenobiotic detoxification and ROS detoxification systems; as well as genes involved in neural system connectivity and innate immune response.