title: Positive selection of Caenorhabditis elegans mutants with increased stress resistance and longevity.
abstract: We developed selective conditions for long-lived mutants of the nematode Caenorhabditis elegans by subjecting the first larval stage (L1) to thermal stress at 30 degrees for 7 days. The surviving larvae developed to fertile adults after the temperature was shifted to 15 degrees. A total of one million F(2) progeny and a half million F(3) progeny of ethyl-methanesulfonate-mutagenized animals were treated in three separate experiments. Among the 81 putative mutants that recovered and matured to the reproductive adult, 63 retested as thermotolerant and 49 (80%) exhibited a >15% increase in mean life span. All the known classes of dauer formation (Daf) mutant that affect longevity were found, including six new alleles of daf-2, and a unique temperature-sensitive, dauer-constitutive allele of age-1. Alleles of dyf-2 and unc-13 were isolated, and mutants of unc-18, a gene that interacts with unc-13, were also found to be long lived. Thirteen additional mutations define at least four new genes.
authors.affiliation: Molecular Biology Program and Division of Biological Sciences, University of Missouri, Columbia, Missouri 65211-7400, USA.
authors.forename: Manuel J
authors.initials: MJ
authors.lastname: Muñoz
authors.forename: Donald L
authors.initials: DL
authors.lastname: Riddle
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D017173:Caenorhabditis elegans / Q000235:genetics* / Q000378:metabolism; D029742:Caenorhabditis elegans Proteins; D051858:Forkhead Transcription Factors; D006358:Hot Temperature; D008136:Longevity / Q000235:genetics* / Q000502:physiology; D009154:Mutation; D012641:Selection, Genetic; D013217:Starvation / Q000378:metabolism; D014157:Transcription Factors / Q000378:metabolism
chemical_list: D029742:Caenorhabditis elegans Proteins; D051858:Forkhead Transcription Factors; D014157:Transcription Factors; C108831:daf-16 protein, C elegans