Diet restriction in fruit flies: control and modeling

The current opinion affirms that moderate caloric restriction in fruit flies increases life span. Nonetheless last years' experiments demonstrate that such an increase is obliged to component content of the diet but not to its caloric content. A hypothesis is put forward in this paper that under caloric restriction in an organism, the energy arrival decreases so that the stationary state is upset and must be restored. To achieve this, control mechanisms are involved. Reproduction is reduced, after which metabolism remodeling and increase of substrate output from the gastrointestinal starts. The increase of life span can be just a side effect of these control processes.