Effect of Dietary Restriction on Muscle Performance in Drosophila

Dietary restriction (DR) can extend the lifespan in various organisms and is thought to present potential benefits in human. However, it is still a controversial issue now among scientists due to lack of strong supportive evidence in human. Aging is an important issue in every developed country, and the aging process causes neurodegeneration and sarcopenia, (the degeneration of muscle mass, strength and function). The aim was to understand sarcopenia in the model organism, Drosophila melanogaster, by monitoring the decline in output of a single twitch muscle, the jump muscle, with age. Jumping assays were performed using an ergometer, while the flies were fed with different yeast concentrations throughout their adult life. We did not observe failure of neuronal conduction as the flies aged; rather the muscle performance declined gradually with age. Flies fed with reduced yeast concentration showed significant extension of lifespan in both Canton-S or Canton-S/Wee-P flies but no difference in jumping performance. However, flies raised in high yeast concentration both from larval stage or adult stage had shorter lifespan without any reduced jumping performance.