Temperature potently modulates various physiologic processes including organismal motility, growth rate, reproduction, and ageing. In ectotherms, longevity varies inversely with temperature, with animals living shorter at higher temperatures. Thermal effects on lifespan and other processes are ascribed to passive changes in metabolic rate, but recent evidence also suggests a regulated process. ...

Several echoviruses (EVs) have previously been shown to use decay accelerating factor (DAF) as a cellular receptor. Since DAF is expressed on erythrocytes, EVs that use this receptor cause haemagglutination. Here we show that all EVs that haemagglutinate do so via attachment to DAF and that this interaction can be inhibited by a monoclonal antibody (MAb) specific for DAF domain SCR3. Although t...

Signaling from the DAF-2/insulin receptor to the DAF-16/FOXO transcription factor controls longevity, metabolism, and development in disparate phyla. To identify genes that mediate the conserved biological outputs of daf-2/insulin-like signaling, we used comparative genomics to identify 17 orthologous genes from Caenorhabditis and Drosophila, each of which bears a DAF-16 binding site in the pro...

Haemonchus contortus (H. contortus) is one of the most important parasites of small ruminants, especially goats and sheep. The complex life cycle of this nematode is a main obstacle for the control and prevention of haemonchosis. So far, a special form of arrested development called diapause different from the dauer stage in Caenorhabditis elegans (C. elegans) has been found in many parasitic n...

In harsh conditions, Caenorhabditis elegans arrests development to enter a non-aging, resistant diapause state called the dauer larva. Olfactory sensation modulates the TGF-β and insulin signaling pathways to control this developmental decision. Four mutant alleles of daf-25 (abnormal DAuer Formation) were isolated from screens for mutants exhibiting constitutive dauer formation and found to be...

Decay-accelerating factor (DAF), extracted from the stroma of human erythrocytes, was purified to homogeneity and incorporated into the membrane of sheep red cell complement intermediates, where its functional properties were analyzed. Incorporation of DAF into the cell membranes was temperature dependent, took place on pronase- or trypsin-treated erythrocytes, and did not depend on prior depos...

In C. elegans, the transcription factor DAF-16 promotes longevity in response to reduced insulin/IGF-1 signaling or germline ablation. In this study, we have asked how different tissues interact to specify the lifespan of the animal. We find that several tissues act as signaling centers. In particular, DAF-16 activity in the intestine, which is also the animal's adipose tissue, completely resto...

The ability of injured axons to regenerate declines with age, yet the mechanisms that regulate axon regeneration in response to age are not known. Here we show that axon regeneration in aging C. elegans motor neurons is inhibited by the conserved insulin/IGF1 receptor DAF-2. DAF-2's function in regeneration is mediated by intrinsic neuronal activity of the forkhead transcription factor DAF-16/F...

Caenorhabditis elegans daf-11 and daf-21 mutants share defects in specific chemosensory responses mediated by several classes of sensory neurons, indicating that these two genes have closely related functions in an assortment of chemosensory pathways. We report that daf-11 encodes one of a large family of C. elegans transmembrane guanylyl cyclases (TM-GCs). The cyclic GMP analogue 8-bromo-cGMP ...