Analysing variation in Drosophila aging across independent experimental studies: a meta‐analysis of survival data. Issue 5 (22nd July 2013)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Ziehm, Matthias; Piper, Matthew D.; Thornton, Janet M.
• Is Part Of: Aging cell. Volume 12:Issue 5(2013:Oct.)
• Page Start: 917
• Page End: 922
• Publication Date: 2013-07-22
• Subjects: Cells -- Aging -- Periodicals; 571.8783605
• DOI: 10.1111/acel.12123
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 1474-9718

Abstract

<abstract abstract-type="main" id="acel12123-abs-0001"> <title>Summary</title> <p>Survival records of longevity experiments are a key component in research on aging. However, surprisingly there have been very few cross‐study analyses, besides comparisons of median lifespans or similar summary information. Here, we use a large set of full survival data from various studies to address questions in aging, which are beyond the scope of individual studies. We characterize survival differences between female and male flies of different genetic <italic>Drosophila</italic> strains, showing significant differences between strains. We further analyse the variation in survival of control cohorts recorded under highly similar conditions within different <italic>Drosophila</italic> strains. We found that overall transgenic constructs of the UAS/GAL4 expression system which should have no effect (e.g. a GAL4 construct alone) extend lifespan significantly in the w1118 strain. Using a large data set comprised of various studies, we found no evidence for larger lifespan extensions being associated with shorter lifespans of the control in <italic>Drosophila</italic>. This demonstrates that lifespan extending treatments are not purely rescuing weak backgrounds.</p> </abstract>