Insulin signaling in Caenorhabditis elegans regulates both endocrine-like and cell-autonomous outputs.

ABSTRACT: In C. elegans, insulin signaling affects development, lifespan and stress resistance. Several studies have shown that insulin signaling affects lifespan in an endocrine-like manner from different cells, while the major downstream target of insulin, the FOXO transcription factor encoded by daf-16, may act preferentially in intestinal cells to prolong lifespan. This discrepancy raised the possibility that insulin may have both endocrine and cell-intrinsic outputs. Here, we further investigated the types of cells capable of producing endocrine outputs of insulin and also identified a new cell-intrinsic insulin output. We found that insulin signaling within groups of neurons promoted wildtype lifespan, showing that the endocrine outputs of insulin were not restricted to specific cells. In cont

SUBMITTER: Iser WB 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC2262836 | biostudies-literature | 2007 Mar

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature