Caloric restriction extends lifespan in a clonal plant
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Date
2024
Authors
Chmilar, Suzanne L.
Luzardo, Amanda C.
Dutt, Priyanka
Pawluck, Abbe
Thwaites, Victoria C.
Laird, Robert
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
Wiley
Abstract
When subjected to dietary caloric restriction (CR), individual animals often outlive well-fed conspecifics. Here, we address whether CR also extends lifespan in plants. Whereas caloric intake in animals comes from ingestion, in plants it derives from photosynthesis. Thus, factors that reduce photosynthesis, such as reduced light intensity, can induce CR. In two lab experiments investigating the aquatic macrophyte Lemna minor, we tracked hundreds of individuals longitudinally, with light intensity—and hence, CR—manipulated using neutral-density filters. In both experiments, CR dramatically increased lifespan through a process of temporal scaling. Moreover, the magnitude of lifespan extension accorded with the assumptions that (a) light intensity positively relates to photosynthesis following Michaelis–Menten kinetics, and (b) photosynthesis negatively relates to lifespan via a power law. Our results emphasize that CR-mediated lifespan extension applies to autotrophs as well as heterotrophs, and suggest that variation in light intensity has quantitatively predictable effects on plant aging trajectories.
Description
Open access article. Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International license (CC BY-NC 4.0) applies
Keywords
Aging , Demography , Duckweed , Lemna , Lemnaceae , Lemnoideae , Light intensity , Longevity , Senescence , Temporal scaling , Caloric restriction , Lifespan in plants , Aging in plants
Citation
Chmilar, S. L., Luzardo, A. C., Dutt, P., Pawluk, A., Thwaites, V. C. & Laird, R. A. (2024). Caloric restriction extends lifespan in a clonal plant. Ecology Letters, 27(6), Article e14444. https://doi.org/10.1111/ele.14444