As the amino acid taurine is being used more frequently in human and animal diets, the exact physiological role and benefit have not been fully elucidated. To determine if taurine can impact long term physiology, we investigated the effects of a chronic taurine supplemented diet using the model organism, Drosophila melanogaster . We specifically studied how life span and development are affected. A pairwise comparison of survival curves found a significant difference between male and female fruit flies supplemented with a taurine diet. Another pairwise comparison found a significant difference between taurine and normal fed fruit flies with respect to gender. Fruit fly eggs are sensitive to exogenous taurine concentrations reducing the number of hatched larvae. Present studies indicate chronic taurine provided throughout the life time may be beneficial to life span extension in adulthood.
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