Data for: Caloric restriction extends lifespan in a clonal plant

When subjected to dietary caloric restriction (CR), individual animals often outlive well-fed conspecifics. Here, we address whether CR also extends lifespan in plants. Whereas caloric intake in animals comes from ingestion, in plants it derives from photosynthesis. Thus, factors that reduce photosynthesis, such as reduced light intensity, can induce CR. In two lab experiments investigating the aquatic macrophyte Lemna minor, we tracked hundreds of individuals longitudinally, with light intensity – and hence, CR – manipulated using neutral-density filters. In both experiments, CR dramatically increased lifespan through a process of temporal scaling. Moreover, the magnitude of lifespan extension accorded with the assumptions that (a) light intensity positively relates to photosynthesis following Michaelis-Menten kinetics, and (b) photosynthesis negatively relates to lifespan via a power law. Our results emphasize that CR-mediated lifespan extension applies to autotrophs as well as hetero..., , , # Caloric restriction extends lifespan in a clonal plant

[https://doi.org/10.5061/dryad.4qrfj6qgz](https://doi.org/10.5061/dryad.4qrfj6qgz)

Authors: Chmilar SL, Luzardo AC, Dutt P, Pawluk A, Thwaites VC, and Laird RA.

Journal: Ecology Letters

Contact: [[e-mail]](mailto:[e-mail]); [[e-mail]](mailto:[e-mail])

We investigated whether caloric restriction (CR) results in lifespan extension in plants by examining the effect of light intensity on the lifespan on individual *Lemna minor* (duckweed) fronds. We conducted two related experiments; data from Experiment 1 can be found in data file \"CR_daily_surv_and_repro\"; data from Experiment 2 can be found in data file \"CR2_daily_surv_and_repro\".

In addition to these main data files, we conducted ancillary experiments to determine the effect of treatment on light intensity, and temperature. These data can be found in data files \"CR_PAR\" and \"CR_temperature\", respectively.

We also included the ef...