Compensatory ingestion upon dietary restriction in Drosophila melanogaster

Dietary restriction extends the lifespan of numerous, evolutionary diverse species(1). In D. melonogaster, a prominent model for research on the interaction between nutrition and longevity, dietary restriction is typically based on medium dilution, with possible compensatory ingestion commonty being neglected. Possible problems with this approach are revealed by using a method for direct monitoring of D. melonogaster feeding behavior. This demonstrates that dietary restriction elicits robust compensatory changes in food consumption. As a result, the effect of medium dilution is overestimated and, in certain cases, even fully compensated for. Our results strongly indicate that feeding behavior and nutritional composition act concertedly to determine fly lifespan. Feeding behavior thus emerges as a central element in D. melanogaster aging.