Priority Research Paper Volume 1, Issue 11 pp 903—936
Drosophila melanogaster p53 has developmental stage-specific and sex-specific effects on adult life span indicative of sexual antagonistic pleiotropy
- 1 Molecular and Computational Biology Program, Department of Biological Sciences, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, CA 90089-2910, USA
- 2 Department of Oncology, University of Cambridge Cancer Research UK Cambridge Research Institute, Li Ka Shing Centre, Robinson Way Cambridge CB2 0RE, England
- 3 Current address: Department of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine, Children's Hospital Los Angeles, Keck School of Medicine, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, CA 90089-9034, USA
- 4 Current address: Department of Human Genetics, UCLA School of Medicine, University of California, Los Angeles, USA
- 5 Current address: Unilever Research Center, Bangalore 560066, India
Received: September 24, 2009 Accepted: October 26, 2009 Published: October 27, 2009
https://doi.org/10.18632/aging.100099How to Cite
Abstract
Truncated and mutant forms ofp53 affect life span in Drosophila, nematodes and mice, however the role of wild-type p53 in aging remains unclear. Here conditional over-expression of both wild-type and mutant p53 transgenes indicated that, in adult flies, p53 limits life span in females but favors life span in males. In contrast, during larval development, moderate over-expression of p53 produced both male and female adults with increased life span. Mutations of the endogenous p53 gene also had sex-specific effects on life span under control and stress conditions: null mutation of p53 increased life span in females, and had smaller, more variable effects in males. These developmental stage-specific and sex-specific effects of p53 on adult life span are consistent with a sexual antagonistic pleiotropy model.