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The Investigations of Nitric Oxide 

Influence on Lifespan of Fruit Fly 

D. melanogaster Transgenic 

Strain dNOS4  

 

Mamura Begmanova, Nata Mit, 

Anara Amirgaliyeva, A. 

Tolebayeva, Leyla Djansugurova 

 
Institute of General Genetics and 
Cytology, Almaty, Kazakhstan 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Vol. 3, Suppl. (2014)   |   ISSN 2166-7403 (online)    

DOI 10.5195/cajgh.2014.153   |   http://cajgh.pitt.edu  

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BEGMANOVA 

 

 

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 United States License. 

 

This journal is published by the University Library System of the University of Pittsburgh as part  

of its D-Scribe Digital Publishing Program and is cosponsored by the University of Pittsburgh Press. 

 

Central Asian Journal of Global Health 

Volume 3, Suppl. (2014)  |  ISSN 2166-7403 (online)  |  DOI 10.5195/cajgh.2014.153  |  http://cajgh.pitt.edu 

  

 

Abstract 

Introduction. Aging and longevity control are among the greatest problems in biology and medicine. The fruit fly Drosophila 

melanogaster is a nice model organism for longevity investigations because of its biological features. Many D. melanogaster genes 

have their orthologs, similar in other eukaryotes, including human. The role of nitric oxide (NO) in the D. melanogaster lifespan 

has been analyzed.  

Methods. Virgin flies of dNOS4 transgenic strain were used for the experiment. This strain contains non-functional additional 

copies of nitric oxide synthase (NOS) gene under heat shock promoter.  For promoter activation, transgenic flies on their second 

day of life were exposed to heat shock (37°C) for an hour. After heat shock, flies were maintained on standard medium temperatures 

at 25°C, with females separate from males. Two types of control were used: Oregon R wild-type strain and Oregon R strain exposed 

to heat shock. The average lifespan was evaluated.  

Results. It was revealed that the longevity of females was significantly higher than males in each series of experiments (p < 0.05). 

The survival rate of females and males was similar in the first month of their life, but in the second month the mortality among 

males was much higher than among females in all series of experiments. The average lifespan of dNOS4 imago was 31 days (34 

days for females and 28 days for males), maximum lifespan was 63 days. In controls, the average lifespan of Oregon R flies was 

54 days (58 days for females and 50 days for males), and the maximum lifespan was 94 days. The average lifespan of Oregon R 

flies exposed to heat shock was 45 days (48 days for females and 41 days for males), and the maximum lifespan was 72 days. The 

difference between average lifespan in all studied groups is statistically significant (p < 0.05).  

Conclusion. Thus, NOS-transgene activation results in formation of non-functional  dNOS4-transcripts and NO deficiency. In turn, 

NO deficiency decreases dNOS4 imago lifespan. 

Keywords: aging, longevity, nitric oxide synthase transgene, lifespan 

 

 

 

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