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Effect of Deleterious Mutations on Life Span in Drosophila melanogaster

¹ Department of Biological Sciences, Bowling Green State University, Bowling Green, Ohio.
² Department of Zoology, University of Oklahoma, Norman.

Address correspondence to R. C. Woodruff, PhD, Department of Biological Sciences, Bowling Green State University, Bowling Green, OH 43403. E-mail: rwoodru{at}bgnet.bgsu.edu

Evolutionary theories of aging assume that the accumulation of deleterious mutations will reduce life span. We tested this assumption in Drosophila melanogaster by a newly designed mating scheme, in which mutations accumulate on the Binscy balancer X chromosome in heterozygous females in the absence of selection and recombination. We found that the life span of Binscy/RY^L males from this cross decreased faster than the life span of their sibling controls over time in two of three runs, and that there was an age-specific increase in mortality in the Binscy/RY^L males with time in one of three runs. Therefore, the accumulation of deleterious mutations can decrease life span by increasing fragility and can cause age-specific changes in mortality. These results support the evolutionary theory of aging.

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