HOME HELP FEEDBACK SUBSCRIPTIONS ARCHIVE SEARCH TABLE OF CONTENTS		QUICK SEARCH:   [advanced] Author: Keyword(s): Year:  Vol:  Page:

This Article Full Text Full Text (PDF) Alert me when this article is cited Alert me if a correction is posted Services Similar articles in this journal Similar articles in PubMed Alert me to new issues of the journal Download to citation manager Cited by other online articles PubMed PubMed Citation Articles by Gems, D. Articles by Riddle, D. L.

Defining Wild-Type Life Span in Caenorhabditis elegans

^a The Galton Laboratory, Department of Biology, University College London, England
^b Molecular Biology Program and Division of Biological Sciences, University of Missouri–Columbia, USA

Correspondence: David Gems, The Galton Laboratory, Department of Biology, University College London, 4 Stephenson Way, London NW1 2HE, England E-mail: [email protected].

John A. Faulkner, PhD

The nematode Caenorhabditis elegans reproduces predominantly as a self-fertilizing hermaphrodite, and this drives laboratory populations to be homozygous at all genetic loci. Passaging of stocks can lead to fixation of spontaneous mutations, especially when the latter do not result in a selective disadvantage under laboratory conditions. Life span may be such a trait, since a comparison of six wild-type N2 lines derived from a common ancestor (but maintained separately in several laboratories) revealed four variants with median adult life spans ranging from 12.0 ± 0.8 to 17.0 ± 0.6 days at 20°C. Fertility was also reduced in the two shortest-lived strains. We determined which life span most closely corresponds to that of the authentic wild type by two means. Firstly, N2 hermaphrodites were compared with seven C. elegans wild isolates. The latter were found to resemble only the longest-lived N2 strain. Comparison of male life spans of six lines also revealed additional strain variation. Secondly, life spans of F1 progeny issuing from crosses between N2 variants showed that short life spans were recessive, indicating that they result from loss-of-function mutations. We infer that the longest-lived N2 variant best resembles the original N2 isolate. This is the N2 male stock currently distributed by the Caenorhabditis Genetics Center.

This article has been cited by other articles:

				T. E. Johnson, D. Wu, P. Tedesco, S. Dames, and J. W. Vaupel Age-Specific Demographic Profiles of Longevity Mutants in Caenorhabditis elegans Show Segmental Effects J. Gerontol. A Biol. Sci. Med. Sci., August 1, 2001; 56(8): B331 - 339. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]