Regensburg 2019 – wissenschaftliches Programm
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BP: Fachverband Biologische Physik
BP 12: Poster II
BP 12.79: Poster
Dienstag, 2. April 2019, 14:00–16:00, Poster B2
Understanding the lifespan of worm dauer by modeling its metabolic pathway — •Xingyu Zhang1, Damla Kaptan2, Sider Penkov2, Vamshidar Gade2, Bharath Raghuraman2, Woberta Galli3, Edmund Koch3, Andrej Shevchenko2, Teymuras Kurzchalia2, and Vasily Zaburdaev1 — 1FAU Erlangen-Nürnberg,Germany — 2MPI-CBG,Germany — 3TU Dresden, Germany
Understanding a lifespan of an organism, which is governed by multiple mechanisms, is an intrinsically complex problem. Here, we focus on C. elegans dauer larvae, the stage of an organism development where the mechanisms of survival are dominant. Recently, we discovered that dauer of C. elegans can intake and metabolize external ethanol as a carbon source, somewhat contradicting the conventional picture of dauer worms as almost an isolated system. Interestingly, the lifespan of dauer increases when small amounts of ethanol are supplied, but starts to decrease when ethanol concentration becomes higher. To understand the mechanism of how the lifespan of dauer is related to the supplied ethanol, we developed a theoretical model based on the known metabolic pathway of C. elegans dauer accounting for the ethanol utilization. The model considers the lack of energy resources and the accumulation of toxic compounds from the metabolic activity as two factors that can potentially limit the lifespan of dauer. Results of the model show a qualitative agreement of the lifespan when compared to experimental data including dauers with various mutations in the metabolic pathway.