Relation between parental age and ROS levels in the parents themselves as well as the ensuing progeny in Drosophila melanogaster

Abstract

The objective of the present study was to ascertain the ROS levels across two generations (parents and progeny) of Drosophila melanogaster populations simultaneously selected for faster pre-adult development and extended longevity, and their ancestral controls. The ROS levels were ascertained after the flies had experienced competition for food during the larval stage and were aged as adults for different lengths of time. The experiment was conducted in the month of January to March 2016. The present study found significant difference in the ROS levels of the two populations but no effect of parental age was seen on the progeny in both the control and competitive condition with rest to ROS levels. In the parental generation, the female flies from the selected populations had on an average 60 (relative Optical Density) of ROS compared to 128 (relative Optical Density) in their ancestral control populations. The study indicates that ROS production is dependent on the immediate environment rather than the long term genetic effects.