74'th update on fly longevity experiments

From: Doug Skrecky (oberon@vcn.bc.ca)
Date: Sun Dec 15 2002 - 12:35:06 MST


    This is the 74'th update of my fly longevity experiments. Average
temperature was 25.3 C during this run. Here I retest the latest batch of
coconut juice, which had a null effect in the last run. I also retest the
(now aged) rice protein, originally used to good effect in runs with poor
overall survival (#56 & #57). I also check to see if adding a little extra
water further improves survival.
    This run shows that it was no fluke that the current batch of coconut
juice doesn't work at increasing fly longevity. It is not a high priority,
but I will have to test various different brands of coconut juice in
future to see if there are consistent differences.
    Rice protein also turned out to be inactive. However this is the same
batch of protein originally used in runs #56 & #57. Possibly "aging" of
this protein removed its beneficial property. Someday I'll have to buy a
fresh batch of rice protein, to see if there are any differences with old
protein.
    The fact that adding extra water to the rice protein had a null result
is not surprising, since the flies did not live long enough to experience
any dehydration stress. In any case I now add a little extra tape to the
cardboard sealer on the bottles, so late life dehydration is less of a
worry.

Run #74 Percent Survival on Day
supplement 6 15 24 36 43
_______________________________________________
control 77 55 10 0 -
coconut juice 20% 84 40 8 0 -
coconut juice 40% 85 31 12 0 -
coconut juice 100% 80 27 7 0 -
coconut j 100% + rice p 1/8 tsp 73 42 8 0 -
rice protein 1/8 tsp 83 39 11 0 -
rice protein 1 tsp 85 50 10 0 -
rice protein 1 tsp + water 1 tsp 93 60 7 0 -



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