Characterizing the Molecular Mechanism of Lifespan Extension in Caenorhabditis elegans via gpa-7 Depletion

Education Level

Undergraduate

Faculty Advisor(s)

Professor Christopher Burtner

Academic Department(s)

Biology

Comments

This research was presented at the 2024 Rhode Island Summer Undergraduate Research Symposium, held on Friday, July 26, at the University of Rhode Island and supported by RI-INBRE.

Symposium Date

2024

Abstract

Aging is a universal biological process that all organisms undergo, but relatively little known of the molecular events that underpin the pathophysiology of age-related decline. Caenorhabditis elegans (C. elegans) are model organisms for aging as their genes can be knocked down easily using RNA interference. The protein coding gene gpa-7 is predicted to be a G protein alpha subunit involved in the activation of adenylyl cyclase. Our lab discovered that gpa-7 knockdown increases the lifespan of C. elegans. We assessed whether long-lived gpa-7 deplete worms have reduced reproduction rates compared to worms on control RNAi. The gpa-7 animals did not exhibit a reduced rate of reproduction compared to the control. Since we predict that loss of gpa-7 decreases adenylyl cyclase activity, we evaluated the effect of the adenylyl cyclase inhibitor 2’,5’ dideoxyadenosine on C. elegans life span. Future directions include evaluating whether the gpa-7 knockdown results in nuclear localization of the FOXO transcription factor DAF-16, which has been associated with other long-lived worms.

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