The prolongevity effect of resveratrol depends on dietary composition and calorie intake in a tephritid fruit fly

Abstract

Several studies have shown that resveratrol can extend lifespan in yeast, worm, fruit fly and short-lived fish, as well as mice under a high-fat diet, probably acting through molecular pathways similar to dietary restriction. However, the putative prolongevity effect of resveratrol has not been observed in other studies. To evaluate the robustness of the prolongevity effects of resveratrol, we designed a nutritional study to address the question, Under what nutritional conditions does resveratrol affect lifespan and reproduction? We fed 2592 individual tephritid fruit fly of the species, Anastrepha ludens, 24 diets of different sugar:yeast ratios supplemented with or without 100 microM resveratrol. Sex-specific survival and daily egg laying in females were recorded. Resveratrol was found to have no or little effect on lifespan of males in all the treatments, as well as on lifespan and reproduction of females. Only under one diet combination, resveratrol appears to increase mean lifespan of females but not at a statistically significant level after multiple comparison adjustment. These findings suggest that the prolongevity effect of resveratrol is at most limited to a narrow range of dietary composition and calorie content in this fruit fly. Coupled with a recent study indicating that resveratrol does not extend lifespan of mice fed the standard diet, our findings further question the ability of resveratrol to increase lifespan in organisms under normal conditions.

Fig. 1

(a) Event history charts for females showing individual lifespan and reproduction across treatments. Each horizontal colored line in a panel represents lifespan of a female ranked from shortest to longest lived on Y axis. The length of a colored line is in proportional to the lifespan of a female. The number of daily egg laying of a female is color coded by yellow and red as indicated in the scale. The numbers across the top represent the fraction of a full diet and the numbers at the right represent the sugar:yeast ratios without or with resveratrol (Resv). (b). Mean lifespan of males. (c). Mean lifespan of females. (d) Mean lifespan of flies under the 0.25x restriction SY 9:1 diet. F and M represents female and male respectively. (e) Mean lifetime egg laying per fertile female. Each color coded curve in b, c and e represents a set of data from flies fed a full or restriction diet with or without resveratrol. X axis denotes the sugar:yeast ratio and Y axis denotes mean lifespan or mean lifetime egg laying per female.