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The Nematode Caenorhabditis Elegans As a Model for Aging

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The Nematode Caenorhabditis Elegans As a Model for Aging Vol. 27, 2018 Drug Discovery Today: Disease Models Editors-in-Chief Jan Tornell – AstraZeneca, Sweden DRUG DISCOVERY Andrew McCulloch – University of California, SanDiego, USA TODAY DISEASE MODELS Models for Aging Research The nematode Caenorhabditis elegans as a model for aging research 1, 2 2, Hildegard I.D. Mack *, Thomas Heimbucher , Coleen T. Murphy * 1 Institute for Biomedical Aging Research, Leopold-Franzens-University Innsbruck, Rennweg 10, 6020 Innsbruck, Austria 2 Department of Molecular Biology and Lewis-Sigler Institute for Integrative Genomics, Carl Icahn Laboratory 148, Washington Road, Princeton University, Princeton, NJ 08544, USA The nematode Caenorhabditis elegans is a key model Section editor: system for experimental research on the genetic regu- Dr. Hildegard Mack – Institute for Biomedical Aging lation of aging, and has paved the way towards many Research, University of Innsbruck, Austria. important discoveries in this field. Importantly, in the course of its short lifespan of 3 weeks, C. elegans displays many phenotypic, behavioral, and molecular changes that are widely shared among metazoans as they age. In this review, we summarize how aging advances in experimental technology. In this review, we first address the features that have made C. elegans a widely used research takes advantage of C. elegans’ biology, and experimental organism for aging research, and we provide we describe the experimental toolbox available to examples for how this model system can be used to under- study worm aging. stand specific ‘‘hallmarks’’ of aging [5]. C. elegans biology in the context of experimental aging Introduction research In the past three decades, the small nematode Caenorhabditis Anatomy and lifecycle elegans has become a premier model system for the study of C. elegans has many convenient features that make it partic- aging. Research conducted by many labs using C. elegans has ularly suitable as an experimental system for basic biological/ contributed significantly to our fundamental understanding biomedical research, particulary for aging research (Table 1). of organismal aging as a biological process that is modulated Most notable is its comparatively short lifespan of just 3 by cellular signaling pathways and gene expression programs weeks [6–8]. Importantly, in the course of its life, C. elegans [1]. The isolation of long-lived C. elegans mutants initiated a displays many readily observable and quantifiable changes scientific discovery journey that has led to many insights into that are commonly associated with aging, such as tissue ) the mechanisms that regulate lifespan (Fig. 1 , with implica- degeneration, decreased movement, and the cessation of tions for human longevity (reviewed in Refs. [1–4]). This reproduction [9–11]. success story of C. elegans as a model system for basic research C. elegans develops from an egg to a fully fertile adult in on the biology of aging emerged from the many favorable 3 days at 20 C (Fig. 2). The 959 somatic cells of C. elegans characteristics of this species, as well as from continuous hermaphrodites (1031 for males) form multiple distinct tissues (cf. below) that can readily be observed by light and *Corresponding authors: Hildegard I.D. Mack ([email protected]), T. Heimbucher ([email protected]), C.T. Murphy ([email protected]) fluorescent microscopy of live animals due to their transpar- 1740-6757/$ © 2018 Published by Elsevier Ltd. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ddmod.2018.11.001 3 Drug Discovery Today: Disease Models | Models for Aging Research Vol. 27, 2018 Insulin-like Dietary Fully fertile adult signaling restriction hermaphrodite Longevity Young ~ 300 9 h adult self-progeny egg Germline Mitochondrial stem cells impairment ~ 10 h Epigenetic several weeks alterations 12.5 h L1 L1 arrest Drug Discovery Today: Disease Models Fig. 1. Selected lifespan regulatory pathways in C. elegans. L4 16 h Pathways that promote longevity are highlighted in green, those that limit up to 4 months lifespan in red. Blue indicates varying longevity effects, depending on the precise factor that is targeted. These pathways are highly interconnected and 9 h dauer engage partially overlapping sets of transcription factors and downstream mechanisms to modulate lifespan. See Refs. [1,3,4]. L38.5 h L2 Drug Discovery Today: Disease Models ence. Excellent microscopy images and schematic drawings Fig. 2. The lifecycle of C. elegans at 20 C. that give a detailed overview of C. elegans anatomy are For a self-fertilizing hermaphrodite, the mean reproductive span is 6 days, available at www.wormatlas.org. The balance between suffi- mean lifespan 15 days, and maximum lifespan 27 days. Self-progeny number is limited by the number of sperm produced by a hermaphrodite. In cient complexity and manageable size of the nervous system response to unfavorable conditions (red arrows), larvae arrest as L1 larvae profoundly influenced the selection of C. elegans as an exper- (triggered by starvation) or as the alternative L3 dauer stage (triggered by imental model system [12]. The connections between the 302 starvation, high temperature, or overcrowding). L1 arrest or dauer formation allow survival for extended periods of time. Animals can exit these hermaphrodite neurons, plus additional special circuits be- stages again when a favorable environment is restored (green arrows). Note tween the 385 male neurons have been mapped to near that the duration of developmental stages is temperature-dependent. completeness, making C. elegans the organism with the Adapted from www.wormatlas.org [17] with data from Refs. [10,18,19]. best-defined connectome to date [13–16]. C. elegans has multiple distinct tissues (muscle, nervous system, reproductive system, intestine, and epidermis [also Table 1. At a glance: advantages of C. elegans as a model referred to as hypodermis]) that are implicated in both system for basic biomedical research. worm and mammalian aging. The C. elegans intestine is Advantages of C. elegans as a model organism remarkable in that it performs functions comparable not Non-hazardous, non-pathogenic to humans just to the mammalian stomach and bowel, but also to Easy and inexpensive culture and handling liver, pancreas, and adipose tissue [20]. Moreover, the Small body size (1 mm for young adults) pseudocoelom has some functional similarity with a circu- Large brood size (300 per self-fertilizing hermaphrodite) lation system [21]. Worms utilize an innate immune system Short lifecycle/generation time (3 days at 20 C) to fight pathogens that is active in the intestine and Short maximum lifespan of 3 weeks (at 20 C) Several distinct tissues, including a nervous system epidermis [22–24]. Muscle displays age-related decline that Transparent body that facilitates microscopy analyses resembles human sarcopenia [25], and neurodegeneration Displays multiple scorable behaviours (e.g. chemotaxis, egg-laying, foraging, causes loss of cognitive and behavioral abilities in aging habituation) worm [26–29]. Opposing signals from components of the Sexual dimorphism with self-fertilizing hermaphrodites (! isogenic offspring) reproductive system can promote or slow aging [30], while and males (! new genotypes through crossing) reproduction ceases with age. Genetically tractable, with easy mutagenesis and mapping tools RNAi interference allows easy full-genome phenotype screens Recently developed FACS-based methods for isolating in- First animal fully sequenced; well-annotated genome dividual cells and tissues has enabled the full transcriptome Individual tissues with full transcriptomes available analysis of the adult neurons, intestine, muscle, and epider- High degree of orthology between the C. elegans and human protein-coding mis [31,32], and revealed that the hypodermis is a metabolic genomes tissue. Lastly, thanks to the availability of tissue-specific Comprehensive genetic toolbox Excellent online databases and resources on C. elegans biology, anatomy and transgenic expression and knockdown techniques (cf. below) genetics studying tissue-to-tissue communication is possible in See main text for references and details. C. elegans (for example [33–35]). 4 www.drugdiscoverytoday.com Vol. 27, 2018 Drug Discovery Today: Disease Models | Models for Aging Research Genetic and genomic features EMS [12], or by transposons [49,50]. With Next Generation C. elegans was the first multicellular organism whose genome Sequencing (NGS) becoming increasingly affordable and rel- was essentially completely deciphered by shotgun Sanger evant computational tools being publicly available, forward sequencing in 1998 [36], although refinements are genetic screening is becoming more and more feasible [51]. continuously made as sequencing technology advances Reverse genetic studies examine the phenotypes resulting [37,38]. Table 2 summarizes the current annotation states from changing the activity of a given gene and are routinely of the C. elegans and human reference genomes. Remarkably, used in the C. elegans field, because powerful and easy-to-use although the C. elegans genome is just 1/30th the size of the tools for targeted gene knockdown by RNA interference have human genome, the number of protein coding genes is been available for >15 years. Feeding of bacteria carrying similar, and 40–80% (depending on similarity thresholds) dsRNA-encoding plamids has become the predominant of C. elegans proteins have been estimated to have orthologs method of administering RNAi to C. elegans. Two feeding in humans [39,40].
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