Sarmah Sweta, Truong Hannah Thi-Hong Hanh, McColl Gawain, Burke Richard, Mirth Christen K, Piper Matthew D W
School of Biological Sciences, Monash University, Melbourne, Victoria, Australia.
Florey Institute of Neuroscience and Mental Health, University of Melbourne, Melbourne, Victoria, Australia.
Aging Cell. 2025 May;24(5):e14498. doi: 10.1111/acel.14498. Epub 2025 Jan 31.
Dietary metal ions significantly influence the lifespan and reproduction of Drosophila females. In this study, we show that not adding any of the metal ions to the diet adversely affects reproduction and lifespan. By contrast, food with no added Zn negatively impacts reproduction but does not adversely affect maternal lifespan, indicating it can dictate resource reallocation between key fitness traits. Specifically, it indicates that female flies stop producing eggs to conserve their body Zn for somatic maintenance. Although these data show that flies can sense varying dietary Zn levels to adjust their physiology, they cannot maximise egg production when faced with a choice between food with no added Zn or food with sufficient Zn to support maximum reproduction. Nonetheless, they can choose to preferentially oviposit on Zn-containing food, perhaps indicating a strategy to assure offspring survival. We also uncovered a role for the white gene in sustaining high levels of egg viability when Zn is diluted in the diet. These insights into the role of dietary metal ions, particularly Zn, point to a central role for these dietary micronutrients to indicate environmental quality and so govern trade-offs between lifespan and reproduction in flies.
饮食中的金属离子会显著影响雌性果蝇的寿命和繁殖能力。在本研究中，我们发现饮食中不添加任何金属离子会对繁殖和寿命产生不利影响。相比之下，不添加锌的食物会对繁殖产生负面影响，但不会对母体寿命产生不利影响，这表明它可以决定关键适应性特征之间的资源重新分配。具体而言，这表明雌性果蝇会停止产卵，以保存体内的锌用于体细胞维持。虽然这些数据表明果蝇能够感知不同的饮食锌水平来调节其生理机能，但当面临不添加锌的食物或含有足够锌以支持最大繁殖量的食物之间的选择时，它们无法实现最大产卵量。尽管如此，它们可以选择优先在含锌食物上产卵，这可能表明这是一种确保后代存活的策略。我们还发现，当饮食中的锌被稀释时，白色基因在维持高水平的卵活力方面发挥作用。这些对饮食金属离子，特别是锌的作用的见解表明，这些饮食中的微量营养素在指示环境质量方面起着核心作用，从而在果蝇的寿命和繁殖之间进行权衡。
