How fruit flies extend lifespan by tuning the cleanup crew inside the cell's power plants
A fruit fly lives at the bottom of a test tube, and its cells operate like a city with millions of power plants. In each plant, that is, in each mitochondrion, cleanup crews work to break down damaged proteins. With age, the crews get tired, trash piles up, and the city starts to malfunction.
Scientists decided to hire extra cleanup workers, but not ordinary ones: a special complex called ClpXP.