Longevity genes in the nematode Caenorhabditis elegans.

DANIEL HOCHBAUM; DIEGO MARTÍN JOFRÉ; ESTEBAN SALVATORE

Seminario; seminarios en el Instituto de Investigación en Biomedicina de Buenos Aires; 2016

According to the World Health Organization, between 2015 and 2050 the proportion of the world´s population aged 60 years will double, going from 12% to 22%. Aging is a significant risk factor not only for the most common causes of death, such as cancer, heart failure and stroke, but also for disabling syndromes such as Alzheimer or Parkinson. Aging?s research, especially with model organisms, has shown that aging, like other cellular processes, responds to signaling pathways and can be genetically regulated. Strikingly, the molecular basis of aging seems to be conserved from worms to humans.Our research goal is to discover and characterize novel genes able to regulate aging?s rate (longevity genes). For this, we use the free-living nematode C. elegans as the fulcrum of our studies. In this model organism, longevity genes were first discovered as being necessary for development of a stress resistant and long-lived larval stage known as dater.To identify genes capable of modulating aging, we performed an RNAi-based screen for dauer suppressors. Genes found with this novel approach demonstrate that the study of the dauer larva not only can identify longevity genes, but could reveal the epigenetic bases associated to cognitive syndromes.