Abstract
When both genotype and environment are held constant, 'chance' variation in the lifespan of individuals in a population is still quite large. Using isogenic populations of the nematode Caenorhabditis elegans, we show that, on the first day of adult life, chance variation in the level of induction of a green fluorescent protein (GFP) reporter coupled to a promoter from the gene hsp-16.2 predicts as much as a fourfold variation in subsequent survival. The same reporter is also a predictor of ability to withstand a subsequent lethal thermal stress. The level of induction of GFP is not heritable, and GFP expression levels in other reporter constructs are not associated with differences in longevity. HSP-16.2 itself is probably not responsible for the observed differences in survival but instead probably reflects a hidden, heterogeneous, but now quantifiable, physiological state that dictates the ability of an organism to deal with the rigors of living.
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Acknowledgements
We thank members of the laboratory of T.E.J., especially C. Link and S. Henderson, for comments and support; G. Amdam for insight into control theory; and A. Smith for help. Support for this work was provided by the US National Institutes of Health (to J.W.V. and to T.E.J.) and by a Polis Foundation Grant (to S.L.R.).
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Supplementary information
Supplementary Fig. 1
Western analysis. (PDF 766 kb)
Supplementary Fig. 2
HSP-16::GFP expression in individual worms. (PDF 833 kb)
Supplementary Fig. 3
Differential expression of MTL-2::GFP. (PDF 638 kb)
Supplementary Table 1
Mean lifespan — selected longevity. (PDF 9 kb)
Supplementary Table 2
Mean lifespan — all longevity. (PDF 9 kb)
Supplementary Table 3
Mean survival. (PDF 7 kb)
Supplementary Table 4
P value for log rank test. (PDF 5 kb)
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Rea, S., Wu, D., Cypser, J. et al. A stress-sensitive reporter predicts longevity in isogenic populations of Caenorhabditis elegans. Nat Genet 37, 894–898 (2005). https://doi.org/10.1038/ng1608
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/ng1608
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