Oxygen? No thanks, I'm on a diet.
In yeast and worms, mutations that extend longevity appear to simulate starvation conditions. The daf-2 pathway in worms plays a major role in life-span extension and in entry into the starvation-resistant and low-metabolism dauer phase. In a recent study published in Science Express on 13 June 2002, researchers screened for Caenorhabditis elegans mutants that survive in a low-oxygen environment and identified a number of daf-2 mutants that are resistant to hypoxia. The implications of these results are discussed in this Perspective.
Longo
Valter D
VD
Andrus Gerontology Center, Division of Biogerontology, and Department of Biological Sciences at the University of Southern California, Los Angeles, CA 90089-0191, USA. vlongo@usc.edu
D000818:Animals; D017173:Caenorhabditis elegans / Q000235:genetics / Q000254:growth & development / Q000378:metabolism / Q000502:physiology*; D029742:Caenorhabditis elegans Proteins; D000860:Hypoxia / Q000235:genetics / Q000378:metabolism; D008136:Longevity / Q000235:genetics / Q000502:physiology; D010100:Oxygen / Q000378:metabolism*; D011972:Receptor, Insulin / Q000235:genetics / Q000502:physiology*; D013217:Starvation / Q000378:metabolism
D029742:Caenorhabditis elegans Proteins; C107483:DAF-2 protein, C elegans; D011972:Receptor, Insulin; D010100:Oxygen