Parsing the life-shortening effects of dietary protein: effects of individual amino acids

Arganda, Sara; Bouchebti, Sofia; Bazazi, Sepideh; Hesran, Sophie Le; Puga, Camille; Latil, Gérard; Simpson, Stephen J.; Dussutour, Audrey

doi:10.1098/rspb.2016.2052

Cited by 45 publications

(45 citation statements)

References 57 publications

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“…Termite workers survived best when they collected a daily amount of carbohydrate comprised between 0.02 and 0.04 mg of per individual and a low quantity of protein (0–0.001 mg) and lipid (0–0.003 mg). This optimum in term of life span is relatively narrow in comparison with other insects studied (Arganda et al, ; Dussutour & Simpson, ; Lee et al, ; Maklakov et al, ).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 71%

Nutrition in extreme food specialists: An illustration using termites

et al. 2018

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Recent nutritional ecology theories predict that an organism feeding on a single, highly predictable food should lack the typical active regulation of nutrient balance observed in all other organisms studied so far. It could instead limit itself to controlling the amount of food eaten alone. Such an animal would, however, be strongly affected by nutrient imbalances. Termites are an ideal model animal to test those predictions, because they are extreme food specialists. We investigated how the nutritional content of food affected termites’ intake and performance by constraining groups of Nasutitermes exitiosus to artificial diets varying in their macronutrient ratios. We showed that (a) termites, contrary to other insects, did not compensate for nutrient imbalance by adjusting food collection; (b) longevity in workers was strongly influenced by carbohydrate intake, while in soldiers it depended almost entirely on the number of workers remaining to feed them; (c) tunnelling activity increased with the quantity of food collected; and (d) intake had very little influence on lipid and protein termite body contents. We provide evidence that extreme food specialists might have lost the ability to regulate macronutrient intake. Our results highlight the importance of life history and ecology in the evolution of nutrient balancing strategies. A http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/1365-2435.13071/suppinfo is available for this article.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 71%

Nutrition in extreme food specialists: An illustration using termites

et al. 2018

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“…Moreover, recent research in ants suggests that directly providing free AA in a defined diet shortens lifespan considerably more than 3 http://doc.rero.ch supplying the equivalent amount of AA via whole proteins, potentially due to a difference in the uptake of AA versus proteins, or by bypassing protein digestion. In addition, providing free AA affects the chosen intake ratio of proteins to carbohydrates, suggesting that the perception of free AA and whole proteins differ [24 ]. These findings thus indicate that results based on manipulating specific AA in chemically defined diets need to be interpreted with some caution.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 82%

“…Moreover, a comparison of the exomebased diet to a yeast-based diet revealed that methionine is the most limiting AA, which might explain why fecundity is particularly sensitive to this specific AA [23 ]. However, in sterile workers of the Argentine ant (Linepithema humile) ant, an exome-based diet failed to increase lifespan [24 ]. Whether this failure might somehow have to do with the fact that the workers were sterile, thus rendering nutrient allocation to reproduction impossible, remains an open question.…”

Section: Amino Acids Significantly Impact Lifespan and Reproductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Amino acid modulation of lifespan and reproduction in Drosophila

Hoedjes

Rodrigues

Flatt

2017

Current Opinion in Insect Science

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1Manipulating amino acid (AA) intake in Drosophila can profoundly affect lifespan and reproduction. Remarkably, AA manipulation can uncouple the commonly observed trade-off between these traits. This finding seems to challenge the idea that this trade-off is due to competitive resource allocation, but here we argue that this view might be too simplistic. We also discuss the mechanisms of the AA response, mediated by the IIS/TOR and GCN2 pathways. Elucidating how these pathways respond to specific AA will likely yield important insights into how AA modulate the reproduction-lifespan relationship. The Drosophila model offers powerful genetic tools, combined with options for precise diet manipulation, to address these fundamental questions. Introduction: dietary effects on lifespan and reproductionNutrition plays a primary role in shaping the physiology, life history and behavior of organisms, and nutritional interventions can have substantial health benefits [1]. Dietary restriction (DR), that is, the reduced intake of nutrients without malnutrition, has been the most widely studied nutritional intervention since the 1930s when it was first demonstrated that DR extends lifespan in rats. Since then, a large body of research has established positive effects of DR on longevity and age-related pathology in numerous organisms, ranging from yeast and worms to insects and mammals. At the same time, DR typically reduces reproductive output [2,3]. The fact that reduced food intake extends lifespan at the expense of reproduction makes the study of DR, and of dietary effects more generally, of key significance for our understanding of the commonly observed trade-off between reproduction and longevity [4,5].Originally, reduced intake of calories was thought to be responsible for the lifespan-extending effects of DR, but this view began to shift when studies in Drosophila showed that lifespan extension under DR does not depend on caloric restriction [5,6]. By testing diets with different nutrient compositions ('nutritional geometry framework') [7], it was found that the ratio of proteins to carbohydrates (P:C ratio), not overall energetic content, affects lifespan and reproduction in Drosophila [8,9]. Today, there is growing evidence that especially dietary proteins play a major role in mediating the effects of DR [10,11] (but see [12]). Remarkably, beyond the effects of the proteins themselves, recent work suggests that the building blocks of proteins, that is, specific amino acids (AA), can profoundly impact lifespan and associated traits. For example, in both flies and mice, restriction of dietary methionine can extend lifespan to the same extent as DR [13][14][15][16].Here, we give a brief review of how AA modulate lifespan and reproduction, and the trade-off between these traits. We also provide a short overview of the molecular mechanisms by which AA might control these two traits and their relationship. We focus on recent research in the Drosophila model, given that this system combines unrivaled genetic tools, a solid...

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“…This finding disagreed with our hypothesis and previous assumptions (e.g., [31]) that longevity increases when amino acids or protein are provided in addition to sucrose. It is possible, however, that neither casein nor our "artificial nectar" provided appropriate ratios of (essential) amino acids, even though at least casein contained all 20 proteinogenic amino acids [24,44].…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Adding Amino Acids to a Sucrose Diet Is Not Sufficient to Support Longevity of Adult Bumble Bees

Grund‐Mueller

Ruedenauer

Spaethe

et al. 2020

Insects

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Dietary macro-nutrients (i.e., carbohydrates, protein, and fat) are important for bee larval development and, thus, colony health and fitness. To which extent different diets (varying in macro-nutrient composition) affect adult bees and whether they can thrive on nectar as the sole amino acid source has, however, been little investigated. We investigated how diets varying in protein concentration and overall nutrient composition affected consumption, longevity, and breeding behavior of the buff-tailed bumble bee, Bombus terrestris (Hymenoptera: Apidae). Queenless micro-colonies were fed either natural nutrient sources (pollen), nearly pure protein (i.e., the milk protein casein), or sucrose solutions with low and with high essential amino acid content in concentrations as can be found in nectar. We observed micro-colonies for 110 days. We found that longevity was highest for pure pollen and lowest for pure sucrose solution and sucrose solution supplemented with amino acids in concentrations as found in the nectar of several plant species. Adding higher concentrations of amino acids to sucrose solution did only slightly increase longevity compared to sucrose alone. Consequently, sucrose solution with the applied concentrations and proportions of amino acids or other protein sources (e.g., casein) alone did not meet the nutritional needs of healthy adult bumble bees. In fact, longevity was highest and reproduction only successful in micro-colonies fed pollen. These results indicate that, in addition to carbohydrates and protein, adult bumble bees, like larvae, need further nutrients (e.g., lipids and micro-nutrients) for their well-being. An appropriate nutritional composition seemed to be best provided by floral pollen, suggesting that pollen is an essential dietary component not only for larvae but also for adult bees.

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Parsing the life-shortening effects of dietary protein: effects of individual amino acids

Cited by 45 publications

References 57 publications

Nutrition in extreme food specialists: An illustration using termites

Nutrition in extreme food specialists: An illustration using termites

Amino acid modulation of lifespan and reproduction in Drosophila

Adding Amino Acids to a Sucrose Diet Is Not Sufficient to Support Longevity of Adult Bumble Bees

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