Lindy Matthews' long-time project, continued after she left by Hailey Wilcox, was just accepted! This paper is huge! It shows:
- A survey of the influence of 40 bacterial strains on D. melanogaster lifespan (big strain-specific differences!)
- An MGWA that predicted bacterial methionine metabolism genes influence Drosophila lifespan
- Mutant analysis of bacterial methionine metabolism genes: big lifespan reductions in flies reared with bacterial vitamin B6 mutants, and lifespan extension when reared with a methionine cycle mutant. BUT these mutations had no effect on the methionine contents of flies or their diets, and no effect on transcription of methionine cycle genes
- Constitutive expression of two transsulfuration genes in bacterial partners decreased the methionine content of fly diets and increased the lifespan of female, but not male Drosophila
We had tons of help from many former undergraduate students: Rachel Hughes, Madeline Veloz, Austin Hammer, Bethany Banks, Amber Walters, and Kyle J. Schneider. Also, a big shoutout to Corinne Sexton who ran the initial MGWA, and then ran 3 followup MGWAs (20 years of CPU time!) at the encouragement of a reviewer. We owe you big-time, Corinne!
Watch for a link soon!