Kinetics of Aging as Revealed by X-Ray-Dose: Lethality Relations in Drosophila

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Abstract
Median ages of death following sublethal and median lethal doses for acute lethality after 1 day were determined in relation to age of exposure, throughout normal life span, to 100 kV X-rays in Drosophila melanogaster imagoes of both sexes. Both sets of data provide continously decreasing functions of dose (D) with respect to age. Consequently D may be used as a single valued measure of age and variations of functions of D with respect to age as rates of aging. Rates of aging as derived from either set of data are faster in the male than in the female and are inversely proportional to normal survival times, about 44 and 51 days, respectively, at the temperature used, 25[degree] C. It is concluded that normal life span and rate of aging are fully determined on eclosion an are realized in the absence of unfavorable conditions. The injuries leading to acute and delayed death appear to affect different mechanisms, the former being wholly recoverable and not additive to the latter which is irreparable. Doses below a certain level did not appear to shorten or extend the life span.