Extension of life duration by dietary ethanol inDrosophila melanogaster: response to selection in two strains of different origins
✍ Scribed by J. Herrewege; J. R. David
- Book ID
- 104637017
- Publisher
- Springer Netherlands
- Year
- 1984
- Tongue
- English
- Weight
- 837 KB
- Volume
- 63
- Category
- Article
- ISSN
- 0016-6707
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✦ Synopsis
Lines homozygous for the AdhS and AdhF alleles were extracted from a French and an African natural population of D. melanogaster. The lines from each geographic region were then crossed and the Mendelian F2 constituted the first generation subjected to selection for an increase in adult survival in the presence of 2% ethanol.
The responses to selection were similar in the two strains, in spite of their different ethanol tolerance. In less than 10 generations, life span with ethanol increased from about 7 to more than 12 days, with realized heritabilities of 0.14 and 0.18. This extension of longevity was also observed with other concentrations of ethanol but not with water alone. The increase in life span in presence of alcohol appears to result from unknown metabolic processes, which are not obligatorily related to the capacity of the flies to tolerate starvation, nor to their size, their lipid content of their ethanol tolerance. In the two lines, however, the Adds allele was quickly eliminated, suggesting a selective advantage for the F allele.