Related Experiment Video
Updated: Sep 2, 2025
06:34
Mass Histology to Quantify Neurodegeneration in Drosophila
Published on: December 15, 2016
10.3K
Ageing desexualizes the Drosophila brain transcriptome
Antonino Malacrinò1,2, Martin I Brengdahl3, Christopher M Kimber3
1Institute for Evolution and Biodiversity, Westfälische Wilhelms-Universität Münster, Münster, Germany.
Proceedings. Biological Sciences
|August 10, 2022
Summary
As fruit flies age, their brains show fewer sex-biased genes, leading to a less sexual brain transcriptome. This age-related desexualization aligns with evolutionary predictions for individuals in lower condition.
Area of Science:
- Evolutionary Biology
- Neuroscience
- Genetics
Background:
- Evolutionary theory suggests individuals in poor condition invest less in sexual traits.
- The effect of aging on sexual trait investment is less clear, as reproduction may be prioritized late in life.
Purpose of the Study:
- To investigate how investment in sexual traits changes with age by examining sex-biased gene expression in the brain.
- To determine if aging leads to a desexualization of the brain transcriptome in Drosophila melanogaster.
Main Methods:
- Analysis of genes with sex-biased expression in the brain tissue of Drosophila melanogaster.
- Comparison of gene expression patterns between young and aged fruit flies across two populations.
Main Results:
- A decrease in the number of sex-biased genes in the brains of aged fruit flies.
- Convergence of male- and female-biased gene expression towards a sexually intermediate state in older flies.
- Sex-biased genes exhibited greater age-dependent expression changes than unbiased genes, with larger changes observed in males.
Conclusions:
- Aging induces a desexualization of the fruit fly brain transcriptome.
- The observed age-related changes in sexual gene expression support the evolutionary prediction that lower condition individuals invest less in sexual phenotypes.
