Life-history theory predicts that nutrition influences lifespan owing to trade-offs between allocating resources to reproduction, growth and repair. Despite occasional reports that early diet has strong effects on lifespan, it is unclear whether this prediction is generally supported by empirical studies. We conducted a meta-analysis across experimental studies manipulating pre- or post-natal d...

We used 197 Drosophila melanogaster Genetic Reference Panel (DGRP) lines to perform a genome-wide association analysis for virgin female lifespan, using ~2M common single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs). We found considerable genetic variation in lifespan in the DGRP, with a broad-sense heritability of 0.413. There was little power to detect signals at a genome-wide level in single-SNP and gene...

It is often argued that food restriction and modulation of the somatotropic axis could increase lifespan in all species, and particularly in human beings. However, this rationale does not take into account the life-history strategies of species and the way they adapt to environmental challenges, particularly to food restriction. It is argued that, for short-lived species of a small size, the be...

In budding yeast, a highly conserved heterodimeric protein complex that is composed of the Rpb4 and Rpb7 proteins within RNA polymerase II shuttles between the nucleus and cytoplasm where it coordinates various steps of gene expression by associating with mRNAs. Although distinct stages of gene expression potentially contribute to the regulation of cellular lifespan, little is known about the u...

A better understanding of the factors that govern individual cell lifespan and the replicative capacity of cells (i.e. Hayflick's limit) is important for addressing disease progression and ageing. Estimates of cell lifespan in vivo and the replicative capacity of cell lines in culture vary substantially both within and across species, but the underlying reasons for this variability remain uncle...

O-linked-β-N-acetylglucosamine (O-GlcNAc) modification is a regulatory, nuclear and cytoplasmic post-translational glycosylation of proteins associated with age-related diseases such as Alzheimer's, Parkinson's, and type II diabetes. Global elevation of O-GlcNAc levels on intracellular proteins can induce insulin resistance, the hallmark of type II diabetes, in mammalian systems. InC. elegans, ...

Silent information regulator 2 (Sir2), an NAD(+)-dependent protein deacetylase, has been proposed to be a longevity factor that plays important roles in dietary restriction (DR)-mediated lifespan extension. In this study, we show that the Sir2's role for DR-mediated lifespan extension depends on cAMP-PKA and casein kinase 2 (CK2) signaling in yeast. Sir2 partially represses the transcription of...

While dietary restriction usually increases lifespan, an intermittent feeding regime, where periods of deprivation alternate with times when food is available, has been found to reduce lifespan in some studies but prolong it in others. We suggest that these disparities arise because in some situations lifespan is reduced by the costs of catch-up growth (following the deprivation) and reproducti...

This paper summarizes three experiments on the genetic manipulation of fitness components involved in the evolution of lifespan through the introduction of an additional copy of the gene for elongation factor EF1 oL into the genome of Drosophila melanogaster. The first experiment checked a prior claim that enhanced expression of elongation factor increased the lifespan of virgin male fruitflies...

A methionine-restricted diet robustly improves healthspan in key model organisms. For example, methionine restriction reduces age-related pathologies and extends lifespan up to 45% in rodents. However, the mechanisms underlying these benefits remain largely unknown. We tested whether the yeast chronological aging assay could model the benefits of methionine restriction, and found that this inte...