Mutation, Condition, and the Maintenance of Extended Lifespan in Drosophila

摘要: The evolutionary theory of aging predicts that longevity will decline via drift or age-specific tradeoffs when selection favors early life fitness. Many Drosophila melanogaster populations continually terminated at young adult ages retain surprisingly long postselection lifespans. We compiled three decades data from the Ives population, demonstrating postselective was both substantial (30 days) and temporally stable over this period. Recently, alleles with positive pleiotropic effects between adjacent ages, particularly those affecting overall condition, have been integrated into may explain extended observed. experimentally tested hypothesis by isolating 20 hemiclones allowing spontaneous mutations to accumulate (MA) for 35 generations. Fitness were positively genetically correlated in control females, traits declined due MA. Crucially, MA induced a strong genetic correlation sexes, implying early-life impacts also reduce late-life survival. Our results suggest postreproductive is actively maintained fitness pleiotropy not merely byproduct exhaustion variation weak drift. Thus mutation-selection balance govern variance system: struck remarkably after continued survival ceases.