The Y chromosome may contribute to sex-specific ageing in Drosophila.

ABSTRACT: Heterochromatin suppresses repetitive DNA, and a loss of heterochromatin has been observed in aged cells of several species, including humans and Drosophila. Males often contain substantially more heterochromatic DNA than females, due to the presence of a large, repeat-rich Y chromosome, and male flies generally have a shorter average lifespan than females. Here we show that repetitive DNA becomes de-repressed more rapidly in old male flies relative to females, and repeats on the Y chromosome are disproportionally mis-expressed during ageing. This is associated with a loss of heterochromatin at repetitive elements during ageing in male flies, and a general loss of repressive chromatin in aged males away from pericentromeric regions and the Y. By generating flies with different sex chromoso

SUBMITTER: Brown EJ 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC7274899 | biostudies-literature | 2020 Jun

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature