Aging-Associated Changes in the Reproductive Function of Drosophila melanogaster Offspring

Abstract

A comparative analysis of parental age-associated changes in the reproductive function and embryonic development has been performed for offspring of D. melanogaster imagoes of mutant (w_CS¹ and w_Or¹) and wild-type (Canton-S and Oregon-R) lines. Fruit fly imagoes from three age groups (3-, 10-, and 20-day-old) were used in the experiment. Reciprocal crossings of young (3-day-old) imagoes to individuals from each age group were performed in order to identify the effects of maternal and/or paternal age on reproductive function parameters in the offspring. The effects of maternal and paternal ages on various reproductive function parameters in F₁ offspring were shown to vary between wild-type lines and mutant lines w_CS¹ and w_Or¹ which is apparently due to genetic differences between the lines. The white mutation alone or combined with advanced parental age had a negative effect on fertility and viability characteristics in F₁ offspring and caused a predisposition to the development of dominant lethal mutations and death at the pupal stage, such that the emergence of less adapted and viable offspring in the population was prevented.