Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2022 Feb;23(1):85-97.
doi: 10.1007/s10522-021-09947-6. Epub 2022 Jan 6.

Lack of age-related respiratory changes in Daphnia

Cora E Anderson  1 , Millicent N Ekwudo  1 , Rachael A Jonas-Closs  2 , Yongmin Cho  2 , Leonid Peshkin  2 , Marc W Kirschner  2 , Lev Y Yampolsky  3
Affiliations

Lack of age-related respiratory changes in Daphnia

Cora E Anderson et al. Biogerontology. 2022 Feb.

Abstract

Aging is a multifaceted process of accumulation of damage and waste in cells and tissues; age-related changes in mitochondria and in respiratory metabolism have the focus of aging research for decades. Studies of aging in nematodes, flies and mammals all revealed age-related decline in respiratory functions, with somewhat controversial causative role. Here we investigated age-related changes in respiration rates, lactate/pyruvate ratio, a commonly used proxy for NADH/NAD+ balance, and mitochondrial membrane potential in 4 genotypes of an emerging model organism for aging research, a cyclic parthenogen Daphnia magna. We show that total body weight-adjusted respiration rate decreased with age, although this decrease was small in magnitude and could be fully accounted for by the decrease in locomotion and feeding activity. Neither total respiration normalized by protein content, nor basal respiration rate measured in anaesthetized animals decreased with age. Lactate/pyruvate ratio and mitochondrial membrane potential (∆Ψmt) showed no age-related changes, with possible exceptions of ∆Ψmt in epipodites (excretory and gas exchange organs) in which ∆Ψmt decreased with age and in the optical lobe of the brain, in which ∆Ψmt showed a maximum at middle age. We conclude that actuarial senescence in Daphnia is not caused by a decline in respiratory metabolism and discuss possible mechanisms of maintaining mitochondrial healthspan throughout the lifespan.

Keywords: Aging; Daphnia; Mitochondrial membrane potential; Respiration.

PubMed Disclaimer

References

    1. Ames BN, Shigenaga MK, Hagen TM (1995) Mitochondrial decay in aging. Biochim Biophys Acta–Mol Basis Dis 1271:165–170. https://doi.org/10.1016/0925-4439(95)00024-X - DOI
    1. Anderson CE, Homa C, Jonas-Closs RA, Peshkin LM, Kirschner MW, Yampolsky LY (2021) Inverse Lansing effect: maternal age and provisioning affecting daughters’ longevity and male offspring production. BioRxiv. https://doi.org/10.1101/2021.06.05.447219 - DOI - PubMed - PMC
    1. Beaton MJ, Peters CM (2017) A Cytological Perspective. In: Smirnov, N.N. Physiology of the Cladocera. 2nd edition. Academic Press. pp. 232–252.
    1. Beaton MJ, Hebert PDN (1994) Patterns of DNA synthesis and mitotic activity during the intermoult of Daphnia. J Exp Zool 268:400–409 - DOI
    1. Braeckman BP, Houthoofd K, Vanfleteren JR (2002) Assessing metabolic activity in aging Caenorhabditis elegans: concepts and controversies. Aging Cell 1:82–88. https://doi.org/10.1046/j.1474-9728.2002.00021.x - DOI - PubMed - PMC

Publication types