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Parental Age Effect on the Longevity and Healthspan of Flies and Worms

11-21-2023

“[...] little work [has been] published on the effect of parental age in the nematode Caenorhabditis elegans, a common model organism for aging studies.”

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BUFFALO, NY- November 21, 2023 – A new research paper was published in Aging (listed by MEDLINE/PubMed as "Aging (Albany NY)" and "Aging-US" by Web of Science) Volume 15, Issue 21, entitled, “Parental age effect on the longevity and healthspan in Drosophila melanogaster and Caenorhabditis elegans.”

Several studies have investigated the effect of parental age on biological parameters such as reproduction, lifespan, and health; however, the results have been inconclusive, largely due to inter-species variation and/or modest effect sizes.

In their new study, researchers Camille Lenzi, Alexis Piat, Pascal Schlich, Judith Ducau, Jean-Claude Bregliano, Hugo Aguilaniu, and Anne Laurençon from the IM Projet, Caduceum, INRAE, IBDM, Instituto Serrapilheira, and Universite Claude Bernard-Lyon 1 examined the effect of parental age on the lifespan, reproductive capacity, and locomotor activity of genetic isogenic lines of the nematode Caenorhabditis elegans and the fruit fly Drosophila melanogaster. 

“We decided to investigate parental age impact on the lifespan of their progeny on selected genomes of flies and worms to gain insights on the molecular mechanisms at work.”

The researchers found that the progeny of successive generations of old parents had significantly shorter lifespans than the progeny of young parents in both species. Moreover, they investigated the fertility, fecundity, and locomotor activity of C. elegans. Interestingly, both the shorter lifespan and deteriorated healthspan of the progeny were significantly improved by switching to only one generation of younger parents. 

“Collectively, these data demonstrate that the detrimental effect of older parental age on the longevity of the progeny can be reversed, suggesting the existence of a beneficial non–genetic mechanism.”

Read the full study: DOI: https://doi.org/10.18632/aging.205098 

Corresponding Author: Anne Laurençon

Corresponding Email: anne.laurencon@ens-lyon.fr 

Keywords: life span, intergenerational plasticity, maternal effect, nematode, drosophila

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About Aging-US:

Cancer and aging are two sides of age-related tumorigenesis.

The mission of the journal is to understand the mechanisms surrounding aging and age-related diseases, including cancer as the main cause of death in the modern aged population.

The journal aims to promote 1) treatment of age-related diseases by slowing down aging, 2) validation of anti-aging drugs by treating age-related diseases, and 3) prevention of cancer by inhibiting aging. (Cancer and COVID-19 are age-related diseases.)

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