However, the mean life span was not significantly different between the treated mice (123±7.6 days, n = 12) and the non-treated mice (122±7.3 days, n = 13) (Fig. 6D).
This analysis revealed that the decrease in mean life span was due to increased age-independent mortality.
Mean life span was assessed in four independent experiments, as well as whole body fat content and AMPK activation.
The largest change in mean life span was for mictic IF mothers, from 8.0 days under AL conditions to 14.6 days under IF an increase of 83%.
The mean life span was increased 13% in mated animals: 16.3 ± 4.6 d for mated animals and 14.4 ± 4.5 d for unmated animals.
The maximum observable effect on mean life span was 2.8 days which occurred at a concentration of 10 micromolar (pls. see Table 1 for details, also applies to all following life span assays).
The maternal rotifers we used in our experiments were themselves the offspring of females of mixed ages, thus their mean life span was influenced by a wide range of maternal ages.
The mean life span was decreased 9% in mated animals: 15.6 ± 3.3 d for mated animals and 17.1 ± 5.8 d for self-fertile animals (pANOVA = 0.08, plog ANOVA = 0.23, pWilcoxon = 0.40, and plog-rank = 0.014).
For both amictic and mictic mothers, 10% CCR and IF significantly changed the shape of the survival curves (Fig. 1), and mean life span was significantly increased (Fig. 2), consistent with previous results (Gribble & Mark Welch, 2013).
The mean adult life span was here estimated to 11 months = 0.92 years, so the midpoint of the reproductive period should be around 2.75 + 0.5*0.92 = 3.2 years.
