A mild stress, hypergravity exposure, postpones behavioral aging in Drosophila melanogaster

Flies were submitted to two weeks of hypergravity in a centrifuge (3 or 5 g), starting at the second day of imaginal life, and their behavior (spontaneous locomotor activity, patterns of movement, and climbing activity) was observed from removal of the centrifuge to an older age; the usual effects of age on these behaviors were generally observed. Hypergravity-kept flies had worse behavioral scores on removal of centrifuge than those always kept at 1 g. When they aged, they got either similar or better scores than 1 g flies, which indicates that their behavioral aging may be slower. These results show that a mild stress such as hypergravity, which has been previously shown to increase the longevity of males and resistance to heat shock in both sexes, is an environmental manipulation postponing aging in flies. (C) 1999 Elsevier Science Inc. All rights reserved.