title: Methuselah meets diabetes.
abstract: Mutations in the daf-2 and age-1 genes cause constitutive dauer larva formation and double adult life span in C. elegans. Their effect on life span has excited considerable interest and their effect on dauer formation has facilitated rapid progress in their genetic and molecular analysis. Two recent papers report that daf-2 encodes a member of the insulin-receptor family and that age-1 encodes a PI3 kinase subunit, a second-messenger producing enzyme known to act downstream of the mammalian insulin receptor. These findings provide the first mechanistic insight into the well-established link between metabolism and aging.
authors.affiliation: Department of Genetics, University of Washington, Seattle 98195, USA. jht@genetics.washington.edu
authors.forename: J H
authors.initials: JH
authors.lastname: Thomas
authors.forename: T
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Inoue
mesh_terms: D000375:Aging / Q000502:physiology; D000818:Animals; D017173:Caenorhabditis elegans / Q000235:genetics*; D029742:Caenorhabditis elegans Proteins; D003920:Diabetes Mellitus / Q000235:genetics*; D017238:Genes, Helminth / Q000235:genetics; D015801:Helminth Proteins / Q000235:genetics; D007328:Insulin / Q000494:pharmacology; D008136:Longevity / Q000235:genetics*; D019869:Phosphatidylinositol 3-Kinases; D011972:Receptor, Insulin / Q000235:genetics; D015398:Signal Transduction / Q000502:physiology
chemical_list: D029742:Caenorhabditis elegans Proteins; D015801:Helminth Proteins; D007328:Insulin; D019869:Phosphatidylinositol 3-Kinases; C100662:AGE-1 protein, C elegans; C107483:DAF-2 protein, C elegans; D011972:Receptor, Insulin