In response to my posting the Science abstract regarding
extended Drosophila longevity,
Dehede011@aol.com wrote:
> Was any hint as to how the dose was administered?
> Ron h.
I forget sometimes that some people don't speak 'genome' yet
and Science abstracts can get rather cryptic. Just hit
me when I do that.
The "P-element insertional mutations" aren't something you
can "administer" to humans. P-elements are mobile genetic
elements (selfish-genes) that can "hop" around in genomes.
They usually damage the genes the end up in. The experiment
found different mutations involving the same gene that apparently
decrease the ability to transport "Krebs cycle intermediates"
(chemical molecules essential for energy production).
The short of it is that instead of putting the fly on
calorie restriction "externally", it in effect put the
fly on calorie restriction "internally".
As Judy Campisi commented in the NY Times article, this
could be a pathway for developing drugs that in effect
block the same pathway in humans. But as I pointed out
you might feel very hungry if you took such drugs.
Also of interest was Michael Rose's comments on how geneticists
tried for years to create mutant flies to extend lifespan and
never found any. Michael is one of the two or three geneticists
who have over may years bred long-lived Drosophila strains by
selecting the youngest children of the longest lived mothers.
Shows what a role "luck" can play in Science from time to time.
Robert
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