Oliver's mTOR Atlas Evidence Platform
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Autophagy genes are essential for dauer development and life-span extension in C. elegans

Melendez A, Levine B et al. · 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 longevity, not just correlated.

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.

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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 type4 - Animal Study
Model systemCaenorhabditis elegans
JournalScience
Year2003
Peer reviewedYes
Record last updated2026-08-22
SourceDOI 10.1126/science.1087782 · PMID 12958363

Extracted findings

InterventionGenetic (autophagy-gene RNAi)
TargetAutophagy / insulin-IGF (daf-2)
ModelC. elegans
EffectAutophagy genes are essential for dauer development and for lifespan extension in insulin/IGF (daf-2) mutants

In the Atlas

Related topics

LongevityAutophagy

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Cite this paper

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Melendez, A., et al. (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 Levine, B. and others},
  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}
}