Figure 6. Failure of adaptive mechanisms leads to cardiac dysfunction and reduction in adult life span of dcerk¹.

(A). Measurement of Pglym enzyme activity in young (1 week) and aged (6 weeks) w¹¹¹⁸ and dcerk¹ flies shows a significant decrease in activity in older dcerk¹. (B). Comparison of transcript levels of CG8093 and CG6277 by QPCR in 1week and 6 week old flies, reveals decrease in their transcripts in aged dcerk¹ flies. (C). Comparison of several cardiac performance indices in 1 and 3 week old esgGAL4 dcerk¹ flies reveals progressive decline in heart function with decreased heart rate, increased heart period and dilated heart chamber. n = 15, bar represents standard error of mean and statistical significance was determined using Student's t test; * denotes P< = 0.05-0.01, ** is P< = 0.01-0.001 is and *** denotes P< = 0.001-0.0001. (D). Knockdown of CG6277 in 3 week old wild type flies also shows decreased heart rate, increased heart period, dilated heart chamber and arrhythmia. n = 10, bar represents standard error of mean and statistical significance was determined using Student's t test; * denotes P< = 0.05-0.01, ** is P< = 0.01-0.001 is and *** denotes P< = 0.001-0.0001. (E). dcerk¹ have reduced adult life span compared to w¹¹¹⁸ flies. The survivorship curve of dcerk¹ and w¹¹¹⁸ represents data from 600 flies in duplicate.