Amino-acid imbalance explains extension of lifespan by dietary restriction in Drosophila

Richard C. Grandison, Matthew D. W. Piper and Linda Partridge ()
Additional contact information
Richard C. Grandison: Institute of Healthy Ageing, University College London, Gower St, London WC1E 6BT, UK
Matthew D. W. Piper: Institute of Healthy Ageing, University College London, Gower St, London WC1E 6BT, UK
Linda Partridge: Institute of Healthy Ageing, University College London, Gower St, London WC1E 6BT, UK

Nature, 2009, vol. 462, issue 7276, 1061-1064

Abstract: A diet for life In a number of organisms, dietary restriction has been shown to extend lifespan at the expense of reduced fecundity. An example of competition for limited resources, the thinking generally goes, as nutrients are reallocated from reproduction to somatic maintenance. Grandison et al. now demonstrate that, in Drosophila, dietary restriction does not induce reallocation, because different amino acids limit lifespan and fecundity. They find that fecundity in long-life flies can be rescued by the addition of methionine alone. Long lifespan and high fecundity can thus occur simultaneously, without dietary restriction itself, by adjustment of the ratio of amino acids in the diet. These findings imply that humans might be able to enjoy the benefits of reduced food intake, without the downsides, by adjustment of dietary nutrients.

Date: 2009
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (10)

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.nature.com/articles/nature08619 Abstract (text/html)
Access to the full text of the articles in this series is restricted.

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:nat:nature:v:462:y:2009:i:7276:d:10.1038_nature08619

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
https://www.nature.com/

DOI: 10.1038/nature08619

Access Statistics for this article

Nature is currently edited by Magdalena Skipper

More articles in Nature from Nature
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Sonal Shukla () and Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing ().