Cell 95: 199-210 (1998)

Cell Nonautonomy of C. elegans daf-2 Function in the Regulation of Diapause and Life Span

Javier Apfeld and Cynthia Kenyon

Center for Sleep and Respiratory Neurobiology, School of Medicine, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania 19104 USA.

The insulin/IGF receptor homolog DAF-2 regulates the aging in C. elegans. Decreasing daf-2 activity causes fertile adults to remain active much longer than normal and to live more than twice as long. A more severe decrease in daf-2 function causes young larvae to enter a state of diapause rather than progressing to adulthood. We have asked which cells require daf-2 gene activity in order for the animal to develop to adulthood and to age normally. We found that daf-2 functions cell nonautonomously in both processes. Our findings imply that the life span of C. elegans is determined by a signaling cascade in which the DAF-2 receptor acts in multiple cell lineages to regulate the production or activity of a secondary signal (or signals), which, in turn, controls the growth and longevity of individual tissues in the animal.