Lactose-Derived Carbohydrates Induce Sexually Dimorphic Nutritional Programming Effects on Lifespan in Drosophila melanogaster

We tested whether early-life consumption of glucose and galactose (GLUGAL; as in hydorlysed lactose) shapes later-life metabolic health in the Drosophila melanogaster model. In the early life, GLUGAL versus glucose consumption alone (GLU) significantly extended the developmental time of larvae, increased the pupal volume, decreased pupal oxygen consumption, and reduced the pupal mitochondrial mass.

These early-life effects were translated into sextually dimorphic effects on adult lifespan: the survival of adult male flies was reduced but the adult females lifespan was particularly extended by early-life GLUGAL consumption. Transcriptomics and lipidomics analyses in adult females revealed that early-life GLUGAL consumption systematically reduced glycerophospholipids saturation under a later-life high-carbohydrate obesogenic diet, which is characterized by decreased abundance of monounsaturated fatty acid-containing glycerophospholipids and increased abundance of polyunsaturated fatty acid-containing glycerophospholipids.