Surveying Low-Cost Methods to Measure Lifespan and Healthspan in <em>Caenorhabditis elegans</em>

Abstract

The discovery and development of Caenorhabditis elegans as a model organism was influential in biology, particularly in the field of aging. Many historical and contemporary studies have identified thousands of lifespan-altering paradigms, including genetic mutations, transgenic gene expression, and hormesis, a beneficial, low-grade exposure to stress. With its many advantages, including a short lifespan, easy and low-cost maintenance, and fully sequenced genome with homology to almost two-thirds of all human genes, C. elegans has quickly been adopted as an outstanding model for stress and aging biology. Here, several standardized methods are surveyed for measuring lifespan and healthspan that can be easily adapted into almost any research environment, especially those with limited equipment and funds. The incredible utility of C. elegans is featured, highlighting the capacity to perform powerful genetic analyses in aging biology without the necessity of extensive infrastructure. Finally, the limitations of each analysis and alternative approaches are discussed for consideration.

Glial-derived mitochondrial signals affect neuronal proteostasis and aging

“…All C. elegans strains are derivatives of the Bristol N2 wild-type strain from the Caenorhabditis Genetics Center (CGC) and are listed in Table 1. All worms were grown at 15°to 20°C on NGM (nematode growth medium) agar plates, fed with OP50 Escherichia coli B strain as a food source, for general maintenance, and handled as previously described (50). For all experiments, worms were switched to HT115 E. coli K12 strain after synchronization using bleaching.…”

Overexpression of mitochondrial fusion genes enhances resilience and extends longevity

“…To examine the overall health impact of overexpressing mitochondrial fission and fusion genes, general phenotypic traits such as movement, fertility, and development time were evaluated. As motility is frequently used as an indicator of worm health span [43, 44], thrashing rates were quantified for animals at day 1, day 4, and day 8 of adulthood. Overexpression of either drp-1 or fzo-1 significantly increased the thrashing rate at all three timepoints, while overexpression of eat-3 significantly decreased the thrashing rate at all three timepoints ( Figure 3A-C ).…”

Investigating impacts of marine sponge derived mycothiazole and its acetylated derivative on mitochondrial function and aging

“…All lifespan assays were performed on standard RNAi plates with HT115 bacteria at 20 °C as previously described (Castro Torres et al 2022). For drug treatments, animals were grown on RNAi plates containing 1 or 3 µM mycothiazole, 8-O-acteyl mycothiazole, rotenone, or an equivalent volume of DMSO from the L1 stage; or animals were grown on standard RNAi plates without drug from the L1 stage and moved onto plates containing 5 µM mycothiazole, 8-O-acteyl mycothiazole, rotenone, or an equivalent volume of DMSO at the day 1 adult stage.…”