I am presenting Sohal's recent paper in Science
(sorry I don't have any of these references) reporting
extension of drosophila lifespan by addition of SOD
and catalase transgenes. I have been looking up
his earlier work and I have noticed a discrepancy
in fly lifespans and enzyme activities reported.
In a previous publication, the average fly lifespan
is something like 30 days. But in the publications
regarding the transgenics, the control group has a
lifespan of about 60 days. The paper says who they
got the flies from, but I can't remember the name and
nothing came up on medline about long-lived flies
when I looked him up.
Also, SOD enzyme activities in control groups don't seem
to match up well between the papers.
I asked around here and was told drosophila usually
live about 20-30 days, so I assume the 30 day average
is more like a true wild-type lifespan. So where
did the control group with a 60 day lifespan
come from? Were they already bred for longevity?
And what's up with the SOD assay?
Help! I know somebody's going to ask me about these things
in my presentation.
-- Tim Hughes
