The timing gene lin-4 controls aging in worms.

Boehm

The same genes that regulate timed events during development also regulate aging and lifespan in C. elegans, according to Michelle Boehm and Frank Slack (Yale University, New Haven, CT).

The lin-4 microRNA is required for the correct timing of cell fate specification at larval stage L2. It acts by blocking the expression of lin-14, a putative transcription factor. But both genes are also expressed in the adult. The Yale duo engineered temperature-sensitive mutations that allowed expression changes after the proteins had functioned in development. Mutants with decreased lin-4 activity lived half a normal lifespan, whereas lin-14 mutants lived 31% longer than normal. This biological clock seems to regulate adult lifespan in the same way it regulates development: via lin-4 repression of lin-14.

Further experiments suggested that lin-4 and lin-14 exert their effect on...

The Rockefeller University Press
2006
The Rockefeller University Press
2006
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