Dietary restriction, its effect on lifespan extension and beneficial effects on health have been studied for long time. Within the last years, the aging phenotype of H. oligactis was closely analyzed in the Galliot laboratory (Tomczyk et al., unpublished), thus it was tempting to investigate if Hydra aging is sensitive to the dietary restriction effect (DR). Among the evidence that it may be the case was an extensive conservation of DR genes in Hydra transcriptome (Buzgariu et al., 2008, Tomczyk et al., unpublished). How DR affects the life span, phenotype and aging process in Hydra would be of interest to know. To investigate if the dietary restriction in Hydra is TORC1 dependent we treat the fed and non-fed aging animals with rapamycin and observe the impact of the drug on the lifespan and aging phenotype. Improved survivability of drug treated Hydra could be linked to the de-repression of autophagy, through inhibition of TOR pathway. We further ask if rapamycin treatment induces autophagy in aging H. oligactis, and for daily-fed and starved animals, we have investigated the turnover rates of LC3-II in case of rapamycin treatment. The project focuses on the modulation of lifespan and resistance against age dependent fitness loss in aging Hydra, subjected to starvation and rapamycin treatment.