Systemic lipolysis promotes physiological fitness in Drosophila melanogaster

Abstract

Since interventions such as caloric restriction or fasting robustly promote lipid catabolism and improve aging-related phenotypical markers, we investigated the direct effect of increased lipid catabolism via overexpression of bmm (brummer, FBgn0036449), the major triglyceride hydrolase in Drosophila, on lifespan and physiological fitness. Comprehensive characterization was carried out using RNA-seq, lipidomics and metabolomics analysis. Global overexpression of bmm strongly promoted numerous markers of physiological fitness, including increased female fecundity, fertility maintenance, preserved locomotion activity, increased mitochondrial biogenesis and oxidative metabolism. Increased bmm robustly upregulated the heat shock protein 70 (Hsp70) family of proteins, which equipped the flies with higher resistance to heat, cold, and ER stress via improved proteostasis. Despite improved physiological fitness, bmm overexpression did not extend lifespan. Taken together, these data show that bmm overexpression has broad beneficial effects on physiological fitness, but these effects did not impact lifespan.