Common features of aging fail to occur in Drosophila raised without a bacterial microbiome. Common features of aging fail to occur in Drosophila raised without a bacterial microbiome

By comparing the transcriptomes of Drosophila raised either under conventional conditions or in the complete absence of bacteria, we find that 70% of the transcriptional changes that normally occur with age are actually adaptive responses to the microbiome, not unavoidable features of aging. In the germ-free state, these seemingly ‘age-dependent’ gene expression changes never happen. Overall design: Total RNA was isolated from the heads of wild type Drosophila grown either under conventional conditions (3, 10, 30 and 45 days old) or in the presence of antibiotics (10, 30 and 45 days old). Genome-wide gene expression was assayed using Affymetrix DroGene 1.0 ST microarrays, and data was analyzed as described in the associated manusript.

本研究通过对比常规饲养条件与完全无菌环境下饲养的果蝇（Drosophila）的转录组（transcriptome），发现正常情况下随衰老发生的70%转录变化实则为对微生物组（microbiome）的适应性应答，而非衰老本身无法避免的特征。在无菌状态下，这些看似"年龄依赖"的基因表达变化从未发生。实验设计：分别从常规饲养（3、10、30和45日龄）或抗生素处理（10、30和45日龄）的野生型果蝇头部提取总RNA，采用Affymetrix DroGene 1.0 ST微阵列进行全基因组基因表达谱检测，数据分析方法详见相关手稿。