Autophagy genes are essential for dauer development and life-span extension in C. elegans

Melendez A, Tallóczy Z, Seaman M, Eskelinen EL, Hall DH, Levine B · 2003 · Science · Atlas ID MEL2003

What this study shows

Worms lacking the autophagy gene bec-1 lost the lifespan-extending benefit of reduced insulin-like signaling - autophagy is mechanistically required for daf-2 (insulin-signalling) lifespan extension and for dauer formation in C. elegans.

Abstract

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Both dauer formation (a stage of developmental arrest) and adult life-span in Caenorhabditis elegans are negatively regulated by insulin-like signaling, but little is known about cellular pathways that mediate these processes. Autophagy, through the sequestration and delivery of cargo to the lysosomes, is the major route for degrading long-lived proteins and cytoplasmic organelles in eukaryotic cells. Using nematodes with a loss-of-function mutation in the insulin-like signaling pathway, we show that bec-1, the C.

Read the full abstract on PubMed →

At a glance

Evidence type	A Animal model Marked A because it is an animal intervention or observation study measuring an organismal outcome (model: Caenorhabditis elegans); the code names the system studied -- animal work can be rigorous and still not be human data.
Study type	4 - Animal Study
Model system	Caenorhabditis elegans
Journal	Science
Year	2003
Peer reviewed	Yes
Record last updated	2026-10-01
Source	DOI 10.1126/science.1087782 · PMID 12958363

Extracted findings

These fields were extracted from the paper with AI assistance and have not been checked against the source. Read them as a pointer into the paper, not as curated claims; where they disagree with the curated summary above, the curated summary stands.

Intervention	Genetic (autophagy-gene RNAi)
Target	Autophagy / insulin-IGF (daf-2)
Model	C. elegans
Effect	Autophagy genes are essential for dauer development and for lifespan extension in insulin/IGF (daf-2) mutants

In the Atlas

Answers that reference this study

Discussed in the plain-language answer Is autophagy actually required for the lifespan benefit of mTOR inhibition?.

Learn the biology

Want to understand the biology behind this study? → mTOR and Autophagy

Cite this paper

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Melendez, A., Tallóczy, Z., Seaman, M., Eskelinen, E. L., Hall, D. H., & Levine, B. (2003). Autophagy genes are essential for dauer development and life-span extension in C. elegans. Science. https://doi.org/10.1126/science.1087782

@article{MEL2003,
  author       = {Melendez, A. and Tallóczy, Z. and Seaman, M. and Eskelinen, E. L. and Hall, D. H. and Levine, B.},
  title        = {{Autophagy genes are essential for dauer development and life-span extension in C. elegans}},
  journal      = {Science},
  year         = {2003},
  doi          = {10.1126/science.1087782},
  note         = {PMID: 12958363},
}

Cite this Atlas record

The record is the Atlas's own work — the evidence label, the extracted findings and the links. It is cited as part of the dataset, not as the paper.

Barton, O. (2026). Oliver's mTOR Atlas (record MEL2003) [Data set]. https://mtor-atlas.org/study/MEL2003/ · Dataset DOI 10.5281/zenodo.22059963

@misc{atlas_MEL2003,
  author       = {Barton, Oliver},
  title        = {{Oliver's mTOR Atlas}, record MEL2003},
  howpublished = {Data set},
  year         = {2026},
  url          = {https://mtor-atlas.org/study/MEL2003/},
  doi          = {10.5281/zenodo.22059963}
}

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