Meanwhile, c30f12.4 mutant worms display a shortened lifespan.
A new study shows that lamin mutant worms display muscle-specific defects linked to altered subnuclear localization of heterochromatin, leading to altered gene expression.
These two regulators are specific to germline signaling in their longevity-promoting effects because daf-9 mutant worms display an extended lifespan, and loss-of-function mutations in daf-12 increase lifespan in males (Gems et al., 1998; Jia et al., 2002; McCormick et al., 2012).
In feeding studies, the exposed worms displayed at least a minimal pharyngeal reflex (data not shown).
WT SOD1 worms displayed a stress level comparable to control (hsp-4 GFP hsp-4 GFPs, whereas G85R Sonlyanimals exhibited severe ER stress [~2-fold induction (P<0.02; Fig. 1A,B)].
Qualitatively these worms displayed erratic and uncoordinated locomotion when compared to control RNAi) worms (representative tracks are shown in Fig. 5A; see also supplementary material Movies 1 3).
RNAi targeting of H37N21.1 in gap-1 ga133 gap-1 ga133sulted in 17% of wormutantslaying the Muv phenotype (vulval index of 3.7); howeveresultedlval defects were observed when H37N21.1 was targeted by RNAinin wild-type worms (vulval index of 3.0).
Worms displaying at least one degenerative change were scored as exhibiting degenerating neurons, as previously described.
Kenyon showed me one of her mutant worms moving across a microscope slide as gracefully and vigorously at eight weeks as a normal worm moves at two weeks.
On the glowing Perspex model, it looks like an army of mutant worms wriggling towards the power station, set to throttle it once and for all.
