How nutrition impacts growth, reproduction and longevity is complex because relationships between these life events are difficult to disentangle. As a first step in sorting out these processes, we carried out a comparative analysis of related species of Drosophila with distinct feeding habits. In particular, we examined life spans and egg laying of two generalists and three specialists on diets with distinct protein‐to‐carbohydrate ratios. In contrast to the generalist D. melanogaster, adult males of two specialists, D. sechellia and D. elegans, lived longer on a protein‐rich diet. These results and our previous studies collectively show that the diet to which larvae of each specialist species have adapted ensures a longer life span of adult males of that same species. We also found a species‐specific sexual dimorphism of life span in the above two specialists regardless of the diets, which was in sharp contrast to D. melanogaster. In D. melanogaster, males lived longer than females, whereas females of D. sechellia and D. elegans were longer‐lived than males, and those specialist females were exceedingly low in egg production, relative to the other species. We discuss our findings from perspectives of mechanisms, including a possible contribution of egg production to life span.

中文翻译：

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果蝇物种的发散：在不同养分平衡下的寿命和繁殖。

营养如何影响生长，繁殖和寿命很复杂，因为这些生活事件之间的关系很难解开。作为整理这些过程的第一步，我们对具有不同喂养习惯的果蝇相关物种进行了比较分析。尤其是，我们研究了蛋白质和碳水化合物比例不同的饮食中两位通才和三位专家的寿命和产卵情况。与通才D. melanogaster相比，两名专家D. sechellia和D. elegans成年男性，富含蛋白质的饮食寿命更长。这些结果和我们以前的研究共同表明，每种特殊物种的幼虫所适应的饮食都可以确保同一物种成年雄性的寿命更长。我们还发现，在上述两种专家中，无论饮食如何，其寿命都有特定物种的性二态性，这与黑腹果蝇形成鲜明对比。在D. melanogaster中，雄性比雌性长寿，而D. sechellia和D. elegans的雌性长寿。的寿命比雄性长，而这些雌性雌性的卵产量相对于其他物种而言极低。我们从机制的角度讨论了我们的发现，其中包括产蛋对寿命的可能贡献。