DOI: 10.5061/dryad.0zpc8679m
title: The role of genetic variation in shaping phenotypic responses to diet in aging <em>Drosophila melanogaster</em>

description: Nutrition is vital for healthy living, yet individual responses to dietary
 interventions vary widely, complicating our understanding of its effects.
 Using the Drosophila Genetic Reference Panel (DGRP), we investigated how
 genetic variation influences responses to diet and aging. We conducted
 quantitative genetic analyses on lifespan, locomotor activity, dry weight,
 and heat knockdown time (HKDT), all measured in the same individual flies
 under control and restricted diets. Flies on the restricted diet exhibited
 significantly reduced lifespan and dry weight at both 7 and 16 days of
 age, but showed increased locomotor activity. HKDT was found to be
 age-dependent. Importantly, we identified significant genotype-by-diet
 (GDI), genotype-by-age (GAI), and genotype-by-age-by-diet (GADI)
 interactions across all traits, indicating that both environmental and
 genetic factors shape trait variation across age and diet. A genome-wide
 association study revealed a quantita tive trait locus associated with
 age-dependent dietary response. These findings suggest that genetic
 susceptibility to environmental influences, such as diet, changes with
 age. Our results provide new insights into the genetic architecture
 underlying dietary responses and aging in Drosophila melanogaster, with
 potential implications for developing personalized dietary interventions
 to promote healthy aging in humans. The identification of DNA sequence
 variants linked to age-specific dietary effects opens new avenues for
 exploring the molecular mechanisms driving these interactions.
description: # The role of genetic variation in shaping phenotypic responses to diet in
 aging *Drosophila melanogaster* Dataset DOI:
 [10.5061/dryad.0zpc8679m](https://doi.org/10.5061/dryad.0zpc8679m) ##
 Description of the data and file structure ### Files and variables ####
 File: healthspan_data.xlsx **Description:**  ##### Variables * age: Age of
 the flies in days. * diet: Diet type. * c = control diet. * r = restricted
 diet. * line: DGRP line number. * rep: Technical replicate identifier (A,
 B, or C). These labels were randomly assigned to three flasks per line and
 diet. Note: Replicate labels are not consistent across lines or diets. For
 example, Rep A of line 303 on a control diet is not more related to Rep A
 of line 313 than to Rep B of line 313. * monitor: Identifier of the
 monitor used. * row: Row number within the monitor. * position: Position
 within the monitor. * dw - Dry weight of the fly, measured in micrograms.
 * activity - Locomotor activity, measured as the average number of times
 per minute a fly crossed the laser beam in the Drosophila Activity Monitor
 (DAM) system over a 6 hour period. * hkdt - Heat knockdown time, measured
 in minutes. If zero counts were observed throughout the locomotor activity
 assay and hkdt assay, the fly was assumed to be dead. In such cases, the
 corresponding cell are filled with NA rather than zero. #### File:
 lifespan_data.xlsx **Description:**  ##### Variables * diet, line, rep:
 See description under healthspan_data.xlsx * event: Survival status
 coding. * 1 = fly died * 0 = censored (fly removed or lost before death) *
 age: Age of the fly at death or censoring, in days.