We have conducted a comprehensive literature review regarding the effect of vitamin E on lifespan in model organisms including single-cell organisms, rotifers, Caenorhabditis elegans, Drosophila melanogaster and laboratory rodents. We searched Pubmed and ISI Web of knowledge for studies up to 2011 using the terms "tocopherols", "tocotrienols", "lifespan" and "longevity" in the above mentioned m...

BACKGROUND Root lifespan is an important trait that determines plants' ability to acquire and conserve soil resources. There have been several studies investigating characteristics of root lifespan of both woody and herbaceous species. However, most of the studies have focused on non-clonal plants, and there have been little data on root lifespan for clonal plants that occur widely in temperate...

FoxO transcription factors play important roles in many cellular processes, including regulation of lifespan in invertebrates and potentially in vertebrates. Our understanding of FoxO target genes that play a role in lifespan control is incomplete and C. elegans is a useful system in which to approach this problem since it has a single FoxO ortholog (DAF-16) and a relatively short lifespan. Usi...

A common property of aging in all animals is that chronologically and genetically identical individuals age at different rates. To unveil mechanisms that influence aging variability, we identified markers of remaining lifespan for Caenorhabditis elegans. In transgenic lines, we expressed fluorescent reporter constructs from promoters of C. elegans genes whose expression change with age. The exp...

We have taken an engineering approach to extending the lifespan of Caenorhabditis elegans. Aging stands out as a complex trait, because events that occur in old animals are not under strong natural selection. As a result, lifespan can be lengthened rationally using bioengineering to modulate gene expression or to add exogenous components. Here, we engineered longer lifespan by expressing genes ...

Increasing the stability or dynamics of the actin cytoskeleton can extend lifespan in C. elegans and S. cerevisiae. Actin cables of budding yeast, bundles of actin filaments that mediate cargo transport, affect lifespan control through effects on mitochondrial quality control. Sir2p, the founding member of the Sirtuin family of lifespan regulators, also affects actin cable dynamics, assembly, a...

Reactive oxygen species (ROS) are highly reactive, oxygen-containing molecules that can cause molecular damage within the cell. While the accumulation of ROS-mediated damage is widely believed to be one of the main causes of aging, ROS also act in signaling pathways. Recent work has demonstrated that increasing levels of superoxide, one form of ROS, through treatment with paraquat, results in i...

The ketone body beta-hydroxybutyrate (βHB) is a histone deacetylase (HDAC) inhibitor and has been shown to be protective in many disease models, but its effects on aging are not well studied. Therefore we determined the effect of βHB supplementation on the lifespan ofC. elegans nematodes. βHB supplementation extended mean lifespan by approximately 20%. RNAi knockdown of HDACs hda-2 or hda-3 als...

It was recently reported that the plant polyphenol resveratrol, found, e.g., in grape berry skins, extended lifespan in the fruit fly Drosophila melanogaster and the nematode worm Caenorhabditis elegans. This lifespan extension was dependent on an NAD(+)-dependent histone deacetylase, Sir2 in Drosophila and SIR-2.1 in C. elegans. The extension of lifespan appeared to occur through a mechanism r...

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVE The influence of genes on human lifespan is mediated by biological processes that characterize body's functioning. The age trajectories of these processes contain important information about mechanisms linking aging, health, and lifespan. The objective of this paper is to investigate regularities of aging changes in different groups of individuals, including individuals...