Sex specific determinants of C. elegans lifespan.
Veerle Rottiers, Professor
Nutritional Sciences and Toxicology
Closed. This professor is continuing with Fall 2024 apprentices on this project; no new apprentices needed for Spring 2025.
Aging is a process of maturation and decline that affects all organisms. Understanding the conserved mechanisms of aging could lead to new strategies for the prevention of age-associated disease. Sex specific differences in longevity occur throughout the animal kingdom, including in humans. Those differences are proposed to be caused by hormonal, metabolic and behavioral differences but their direct influence on lifespan are not well studied. C. elegans is an excellent model system to study aging, and many genes and interventions have been identified that accelerate or delay aging dramatically. However, the lifespan of C. elegans males has been largely neglected. Manually scoring lifespan assays can be tedious and prone to researcher bias. We have recently obtained an automated system for monitoring the behavior of group-housed C. elegans throughout their lifespan called the “Observatory” (Kerr et al, 2022 https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/36105851/). This set-up consists of a set of computers running custom software to control an incubator containing imaging and motion-control hardware. The Observatory software includes a web interface that automatically displays size, length and a variety of speed measurements throughout the first one or two weeks of the worm’s lifespan. In this project, the student will use the Observatory to query the effect of several interventions on female and male lifespan. This will include dietary restriction, gene knock-out by RNAi and genetic mutations. This research will help us understand how these interventions affect the lifespan of organisms in a sex specific manner and might provide insides into both the aging process itself as well as the differences in lifespan between sexes in C. elegans and other species.
Role: Over the course of this project, students will learn to work with C. elegans as a model system to study lifespan. Specific techniques will include: (1) grow and stage worms (2) set-up experiments using the Observatory (3) interpret and analyze data.
Qualifications: Undergraduates seeking to apply should be highly motivated, organized and engaged, clear communicators and persevering. This position is recommended for those interested in the biology of aging and genetics. Previous research experience with model organisms (although valuable) is not required. Ideally, the apprentice will have some previous experience with dissection microscopes and general laboratory techniques.
Hours: 12 or more hours
Related website: https://rottierslab.org/
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