DROSOPHILA LONGEVITY ASSURANCE GENES

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The long term goal of this project is to identify genes which directly affect human aging and health span, called Longevity Assurance Genes (LAGs). The fruit fly Drosophila melanogaster is used as a model organism for identifying LAGs because of its short life span, ease of culture, and the many genetic and molecular tools which can be applied to its study. The similarities between aging in Drosophila and humans at the cellular and molecular level suggest that LAGs identified in Drosophila may have functional homologs. 7 candidate LAGs were selected from known Drosophila genes based on several criteria. The genes are involved are involved in stress responses, DNA repair and energy storage, and each has known functional homologs in humans. The genes will be tested for effects on Drosophila life span by experimentally increasing and decreasing their activity in transgenic flies. In addition, genetic screens will be performed to identify novel Drosophila LAGs. These screens will utilize a newly-developed P-type transposable element as a mutagen, called PdL. PdL creates dominant conditional mutations, which should greatly facilitate the identification, characterization and cloning of novel Drosophila LAGs.