Insights into aging through measurements of the Drosophila proteome as a function of temperature

Drosophila melanogaster is used as a model system to investigate protein changes associated with the aging process under conditions that alter organism lifespan. Changes in the proteome are assessed at various ages in populations of Oregon-R adult males that have mean lifetimes of 47 and 111 days at 28 and 18°C, respectively. Peptide hits detected from strong-cation-exchange and reversed-phase liquid chromatography coupled to tandem mass spectrometry analysis are employed to examine patterns in relative protein expression. Thirty-three proteins were identified as having similar patterns of expression at both temperatures investigated when scaling the organism age to lifespan. In addition, the proteins ferritin 2 light chain homologue and larval serum protein 1β were identified in relatively high abundance and displayed distinctly different patterns of expression between the two temperatures. Overall, the results support the notion that aspects of the aging process may be preprogrammed at the protein level.