In: BMC Genomics, 2010, vol. 11, no. 199, p. 1-19
Background: Tyrosine kinase 2 (Tyk2), a central component of Janus kinase/signal transducer and activator of transcription (JAK/STAT) signaling, has major effects on innate immunity and inflammation. Mice lacking Tyk2 are resistant to endotoxin shock induced by lipopolysaccharide (LPS), and Tyk2 deficient macrophages fail to efficiently induce interferon alpha/beta after LPS treatment....
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In: PLoS ONE, 2010, vol. 5, no. 8, p. 1-5
Background: The Drosophila C virus (DCV) is a common and well-studied Drosophila pathogen. Although natural infections are known from Drosophila melanogaster and D. simulans, and artificial infections have been reported from several. Drosophila species and other insects, it remains unclear to date whether DCV infections also occur naturally in other Drosophila species. Methods/Principal Findings:...
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In: Aging, 2010, vol. 2, no. 7, p. 387-389
Dietary restriction (DR), reduced food uptake without malnutrition, is the most universal intervention known to extend animal lifespan, from invertebrates to mammals [1]. However, despite impressive progress in identifying the key components of the DR pathway, many proximal effectors of DR induced longevity remain unknown to date [1]. One central obstacle in the search for such mechanisms is...
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In: Nature Education Knowledge, 2010, vol. 1, no. 12, p. 1-6
This case study highlights the general issues raised earlier. First, that maximum lifespan is not an easily obtainable metric. Specifically, it is unambiguous in the sense that once the last animal dies, it is most definitely dead. But to estimate the variance in maximum lifespan, many replicate populations would need to be followed for each treatment group (with each replicate providing a single...
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In: Nature, 2009, vol. 462, no. 24, p. 989-990
Dietary restriction promotes longevity but impairs fecundity in many organisms. When the amino acids in a diet are fine-tuned, however, lifespan can be increased without loss of fecundity — at least in fruitflies.
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In: Aging, 2009, vol. 1, no. 1, p. 38-48
Calorie Restriction (CR) is a well established method of extending life span in a variety of organisms. In the fruit fly D. melanogaster, CR is mediated at least in part by activation of dSir2. In mammalian systems, one of the critical targets of Sir2 is the tumor suppressor p53. This deacetylation of p53 by Sir2 leads to inhibition of p53's transcriptional activity. We have recently shown...
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In: The Journal of Experimental Biology, 2008, vol. 21, no. 1, p. 2712-2724
Juvenile hormone (JH) and 20-hydroxy-ecdysone (20E) are highly versatile hormones, coordinating development, growth, reproduction and aging in insects. Pulses of 20E provide key signals for initiating developmental and physiological transitions, while JH promotes or inhibits these signals in a stage-specific manner. Previous evidence suggests that JH and 20E might modulate innate immunity,...
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In: npj Aging and Mechanisms of Disease, 2017, vol. 3, no. 1, p. 5
Mechanisms that ensure and maintain the stability of genetic information are fundamentally important for organismal function and can have a large impact on disease, aging, and life span. While a multi-layered cellular apparatus exists to detect and respond to DNA damage, various insults from environmental and endogenous sources continuously affect DNA integrity. Over time this can lead to the...
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In: Ecology and Evolution, 2017, vol. 7, no. 11, p. 3796–3807
A fundamental question in life‐history evolution is how organisms cope with fluctuating environments, including variation between stressful and benign conditions. For short‐ lived organisms, environments commonly vary between generations. Using a novel experimental design, we exposed wild‐derived Drosophila melanogaster to three different selection regimes: one where generations...
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In: Journal of Evolutionary Biology, 2016, vol. 29, no. 5, p. 1059–1072
Chromosomal inversions are thought to play a major role in climatic adaptation. In D. melanogaster, the cosmopolitan inversion In(3R)Payne exhibits latitudinal clines on multiple continents. As many fitness traits show similar clines, it is tempting to hypothesize that In(3R)P underlies observed clinal patterns for some of these traits. In support of this idea, previous work in Australian...
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