IMPACT OF THE TEMPERATURE ON LARVAL STAGE OF DEVELOPMENT ON THE EXPRESSION LEVELS OF HSP70, INR, SIRT1, MTOR AND FOXO GENESIN MALES AND FEMALES OF DROSOPHILA MELANOGASTER

Abstract

Background. Despite the progress in understanding the phenomenon of aging, the key factors that influence this process remain poorly understood. Aging is a genetically programmed set of events, leading to structural and functional changes that reduce the life expectancy of an organism. The relevance of the study is to expand the understanding of the impact of environmental factors, in particular temperature, on the early stages of development on the life expectancy of imago, using Drosophila melanogaster as a model. The aim was to determine and analyze the expression level of genes associated with lifespan in D. melanogaster – Hsp70, InR, Sirt1, mTor and foxo – in flies reared at different temperatures of the larval stage of development. Methods. The larvae were kept at different temperatures, after which the gene expression level was determined by RT-qPCR in adult flies. The relative expression level was calculated by using the 2-ΔΔCt method. The data were analyzed using ANOVA-test followed by a pairwise multiple comparison post-hoc Tukey HSD test. Differences were considered significant at p˂0.05. Results. The temperature of the larval stage of development did not significantly affect the gene expression of male adults. Аt the same time in females imago a significant increase in the expression of Hsp70, InR, Sirt1 and mTor genes was observed in individuals with larval development took at 20°C and 30°C, compared to the control at 25°C. Conclusions. The increased expression levels of the genes chosen for analysis under the critical temperature conditions indicates the induction of a generalized stress response that did not correlate with an increased life expectancy. The finding of sex differences in gene expression patterns requires further investigation to uncover the molecular mechanisms underlying it.