Fruit fly study busts traditional understanding of genes & positive effects of antibiotics

In an attempt to better understand the role of bacteria in health and disease, a team of researchers recently fed antibiotics to fruit flies and monitored their age controlling genes subsequently. To their surprise, the team discovered that not only the antibiotics increased the life span of the flies but also altered the way the genes acted. According to the team, only about 30 per cent of the age controlling genes set the fly’s internal body clock while the rest reflected upon the body’s response to the bacteria.

The study which sheds light on how bacteria can control age in animals was conducted by researchers from the National Institute of Health (NIH). Results of the study have been published in iScience.

“For decades scientists have been developing a hit list of common ageing genes. These genes are thought to control the ageing process throughout the animal kingdom, from worms to mice to humans,” said Edward Giniger, PhD, at the NIH’s National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke (NINDS) and the senior author of the study “We were shocked to find that only about 30% of these genes may be directly involved in the ageing process. We hope that these results will help medical researchers better understand the forces that underlie several age-related disorders,” he added.

How was the study conducted?

For the purpose of the research, scientists raised newborn male flies on antibiotics to prevent bacteria growth. While they thought that the anti-bodies would have little or no effect, they were stunned to discover that the anti-bodies increased the subjected fly’s lives from 57 days to 63 days. Additionally, the team discovered that raising flies on antibiotics brokes links between age and several genes of the flies includes those related to stress and immunity.

“This is a big jump in age for flies. In humans, it would be the equivalent of gaining about 20 years of life,” said Arvind Kumar Shukla, PhD, a post-doctoral fellow on Dr Giniger’s team and the lead author of the study. “We were totally caught off guard and it made us wonder why these flies took so long to die.”

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