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Here’s a summary of our latest work in @eLife. We have known for 85 y that Diet Restriction can extend lifespan - but how? We have used Drosophila to discover that a key micronutrient is traded off between lifespan and reproduction to mediate the effect. https://elifesciences.org/articles/62335
Building on work started 15y ago @IHAatUCL (with @william_mair) at @monashbiol we study the nutritional requirements for #dietaryrestriction (DR). Using Nutritional Geometry ( @eatlikeanimals) a lot of work points to lower protein (higher carb) diets promoting longer life.
The importance of #protein is supported by the fact that low dose #rapamycin administration extends life in animals, indicating that suppressing the amino acid sensitive #TOR pathway is key to longevity.
But we find that protein itself does not directly alter lifespan. Instead, flies on high protein diets kill themselves by overcommitting to higher reproduction; they deplete themselves of critical sterol stores. Thus, lower protein stops sterol depletion and extends life.
This means flies eating high protein diets can live as long as those on lower protein diets (or diets with rapamycin) if sufficient sterols are supplied --> they get to eat the high food diet and still live long as if they had been dietarily restricted!
This tells us that on higher protein, low carb (low sterol) food, there is a program to deplete the soma to support reproduction. Maybe nutrient recycling and not ageing related damage can explain DR (see important theory by @RBonduriansky and David Gems @IHAatUCL)
How is this relevant to other animals in which protein restriction and rapamycin extend life? Perhaps these interventions also rescue other animals from protein-related signals that cause overinvestment of critical micronutrient(s) into reproduction
This was a huge effort by @BrookeZanco (first paper!) and @cmirth and Carla Sgró at @Monashbiology @monash_science @monashuni
(btw, outstanding publishing experience with @elife – worth trying) https://www.monash.edu/science/news/current/new-discovery-shows-how-living-longer-can-be-achieved-without-eating-less
(btw, outstanding publishing experience with @elife – worth trying) https://www.monash.edu/science/news/current/new-discovery-shows-how-living-longer-can-be-achieved-without-eating-less
