Less protein for maggots means longer lives for fruit flies
Eating less protein as larvae may limit their ability to produce proteins as adults.
Eating less protein as larvae may limit their ability to produce proteins as adults.
The short version
- Back in the 1930s, scientists noticed that water fleas and rats fed restricted diets while young went on to live longer.
- The same effect has since turned up in fruit flies and mice.
- What we did not know was how a meal eaten in infancy could affect health weeks, months, or even years later.
What happened
A recent Nature study might have found the answer. A team led by Fumiaki Obata, a biologist at the RIKEN Center for Biosystems Dynamics Research in Kobe, Japan, found a protein that carries a record into adulthood of what fruit flies ate as larvae, influencing how long they live.
Why it matters
Lab fruit flies are fed a mix of yeast and sugar, with yeast being their main source of protein.
Summary by Nerd News Network. Read the full article at Ars Technica via the links above and below.