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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
PubMed
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.

Keywords:
Drosophila melanogasterageingbraincondition dependencesenescencesex-biased genes

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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.