Autophagy is required for dietary restriction-mediated life span extension in C. elegans

Kailiang Jia, Beth Levine

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

268 Scopus citations

Abstract

Dietary restriction extends life span in diverse species including Caenorhabditis elegans. However, the downstream cellular targets regulated by dietary restriction are largely unknown. Autophagy, an evolutionary conserved lysosomal degradation pathway, is induced under starvation conditions and regulates life span in insulin signaling C. elegans mutants. We now report that two essential autophagy genes (bec-1 and Ce-atg7) are required for the longevity phenotype of the C. elegans dietary restriction mutant (eat-2(ad1113) animals. Thus, we propose that autophagy mediates the effect, not only of insulin signaling, but also of dietary restriction on the regulation of C. elegans life span. Since autophagy and longevity control are highly conserved from C. elegans to mammals, a similar role for autophagy in dietary restriction-mediated life span extension may also exist in mammals.

Original languageEnglish (US)
Pages (from-to)597-599
Number of pages3
JournalAutophagy
Volume3
Issue number6
DOIs
StatePublished - 2007

Keywords

  • Aging
  • Autophagy
  • C. elegans
  • Longevity
  • Starvation

ASJC Scopus subject areas

  • Molecular Biology
  • Cell Biology

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