Assessing Health Span in Caenorhabditis elegans: Lessons From Short-Lived Mutants

Hormesis extends the correlation between stress resistance and life span in long-lived mutants of Caenorhabditis elegans.

Genetics, life span, health span, and the aging process in Caenorhabditis elegans.

As a tool for measuring the aging process, life span has been invaluable in dissecting the genes that modulate longevity. Studies over the past few decades have identified several hundred genes that can modify life span in model organisms such as yeast, worms, and flies. Yet, despite this vast amount of research, we still do not fully understand how the genes that affect life span influence how...

Diapause-associated metabolic traits reiterated in long-lived daf-2 mutants in the nematode Caenorhabditis elegans.

The longevity of the Caenorhabditis elegans diapausal dauer larva greatly exceeds that of the adult. Dauer formation and adult ageing are both regulated by insulin/IGF-1 signaling (IIS). Reduced IIS, e.g. by mutation of the daf-2 insulin/IGF-1 receptor gene, increases adult lifespan. This may reflect mis-expression in the adult of dauer longevity-assurance processes. Since IIS plays a central r...

Altered quinone biosynthesis in the long-lived clk-1 mutants of Caenorhabditis elegans.

Mutations in the clk-1 gene of Caenorhabditis elegans result in an extended life span and an average slowing down of developmental and behavioral rates. However, it has not been possible to identify biochemical changes that might underlie the extension of life span observed in clk-1 mutants, and therefore the function of CLK-1 in C. elegans remains unknown. In this report, we analyzed the effec...

Apparent uncoupling of energy production and consumption in long-lived Clk mutants of Caenorhabditis elegans

Clk mutants of Caenorhabditis elegans are characterised by an overall slow down of temporal processes and increase in life span. It was hypothesised that Clk mutations slow down the pace of many cellular functions and lower the rate of energy metabolism, possibly resulting in slower production of reactive oxygen species which in turn could result in slower ageing. We tested this hypothesis by m...