Hypergravity and aging in Drosophila melanogaster. 6. Spontaneous locomotor activity.

The spontaneous locomotor activity (SLA) of Drosophila melanogaster flies kept at various gravity levels (1-5 g) was recorded in both longitudinal and cross-sectional experiments. No gravity level effect could be detected in the longitudinal one, probably because these flies were allowed (for technical reasons) to rest at 1 g for 15% of their life. By contrast, flies kept at 5 g in the cross-sectional experiment had lower SLA scores at middle and old age than both 1 and 3 g-kept flies. The results of this series of experiments on hypergravity (HG) effects on three forms of locomotor activity (climbing activity, patterns of movement and SLA) allow to conclude that aging is accelerated in HG, even if no longevity decrease could be detected in the 1-4 g range.