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Ageing

The old worm turns more slowly

Nature volume 419, pages 794–795 (2002)Cite this article

Detailed studies of cellular changes in ageing nematode worms show that they, like humans, suffer progressive muscle deterioration. Randomness of cell damage is another shared hallmark of the ageing process.

When the nematode worm Caenorhabditis elegans was first considered as a model for the study of ageing some 20 years ago, few foresaw how valuable it would prove to be. The past decade, in particular, has seen an explosion of work on the genetics of lifespan in this species. Building on pioneering work by Tom Johnson1 and others, more than 50 mutations that extend lifespan have now been described, and the metabolic pathways regulated by these genes are being unravelled2. Some of these genes regulate a key developmental switch, which directs young worms that find themselves in poor environments to adopt a long-lived stress-resistant form (the dauer larva). Other genes control core processes, such as the overall rate of metabolism. These are exactly the kinds of processes predicted to be important for longevity by the evolutionary theories of ageing, in particular the 'disposable soma' theory, which suggests that competition for metabolic resources between processes such as growth, reproduction and cellular maintenance lies at the heart of the ageing process3.

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Figure 1: Lifespan distributions for individual Caenorhabditis elegans nematodes in isogenic populations of wild-type (green) and long-lived age-1 (purple) strains.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Institute for Ageing and Health, University of Newcastle upon Tyne, Newcastle General Hospital, Newcastle upon Tyne, NE4 6BE, UK

    Thomas B. L. Kirkwood

  2. Andrus Gerontology Center, University of Southern California, 3715 McClintock Avenue, Los Angeles, 90089, California, USA

    Caleb E. Finch

Authors
  1. Thomas B. L. Kirkwood
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  2. Caleb E. Finch
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Correspondence to Thomas B. L. Kirkwood or Caleb E. Finch.

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Kirkwood, T., Finch, C. The old worm turns more slowly. Nature 419, 794–795 (2002). https://doi.org/10.1038/419794a

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