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Public and private mechanisms of life extension in Caenorhabditis elegans

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Abstract

Model organisms have been widely used to study the ageing phenomenon in order to learn about human ageing. Although the phylogenetic diversity between vertebrates and some of the most commonly used model systems could hardly be greater, several mechanisms of life extension are public (common characteristic in divergent species) and likely share a common ancestry. Dietary restriction, reduced IGF-signaling and, seemingly, reduced ROS-induced damage are the best known mechanisms for extending longevity in a variety of organisms. In this review, we summarize the knowledge of ageing in the nematode Caenorhabditis elegans and compare the mechanisms of life extension with knowledge from other model organisms.

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Acknowledgments

We thank the referees for helpful comments on this manuscript. KH is a postdoctoral fellow with the Fund of Scientific Research-Flanders (FWO-Vl). This work was supported by Ghent University (GOA 12050101), the FWO-Vl (G.0025.06) and the European community (LSHM-CT-2004-512020).

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  1. Department of Biology, Ghent University, K. L. Ledeganckstraat 35, 9000, Ghent, Belgium

    Koen Houthoofd & Jacques R. Vanfleteren

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  1. Koen Houthoofd
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  2. Jacques R. Vanfleteren
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Correspondence to Jacques R. Vanfleteren.

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Communicated by T. Nyström.

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Houthoofd, K., Vanfleteren, J.R. Public and private mechanisms of life extension in Caenorhabditis elegans . Mol Genet Genomics 277, 601–617 (2007). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00438-007-0225-1

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