Experimentally reduced insulin/IGF-1 signaling in adulthood extends lifespan of parents and improves Darwinian fitness of their offspring

Lind, Martin I., Ravindran, Sanjana, Sekajova, Zuzana, Carlsson, Hanne, Hinas, Andrea and Maklakov, Alexei A. ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-5809-1203 (2019) Experimentally reduced insulin/IGF-1 signaling in adulthood extends lifespan of parents and improves Darwinian fitness of their offspring. Evolution Letters, 3 (2). pp. 207-216. ISSN 2056-3744

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Abstract

Classical theory maintains that ageing evolves via energy trade-offs between reproduction and survival leading to accumulation of unrepaired cellular damage with age. In contrast, the emerging new theory postulates that ageing evolves because of deleterious late-life hyper-function of reproduction-promoting genes leading to excessive biosynthesis in late-life. The hyper-function theory uniquely predicts that optimizing nutrient-sensing molecular signaling in adulthood can simultaneously postpone ageing and increase Darwinian fitness. Here, we show that reducing evolutionarily conserved insulin/IGF-1 nutrient-sensing signaling via daf-2 RNA interference (RNAi) fulfils this prediction in Caenorhabditis elegans nematodes. Long-lived daf-2 RNAi parents showed normal fecundity as self-fertilizing hermaphrodites and improved late-life reproduction when mated to males. Remarkably, the offspring of daf-2 RNAi parents had higher Darwinian fitness across three different genotypes. Thus, reduced nutrient-sensing signaling in adulthood improves both parental longevity and offspring fitness supporting the emerging view that suboptimal gene expression in late-life lies at the heart of ageing.

Item Type:	Article
Faculty \ School:	Faculty of Science > School of Biological Sciences
UEA Research Groups:	Faculty of Science > Research Groups > Organisms and the Environment Faculty of Science > Research Centres > Centre for Ecology, Evolution and Conservation
Depositing User:	LivePure Connector
Date Deposited:	01 May 2019 12:30
Last Modified:	13 Oct 2024 23:53
URI:	https://ueaeprints.uea.ac.uk/id/eprint/70774
DOI:	10.1002/evl3.108

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