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Updated: Jun 3, 2026
Dietary Supplementation of Polyunsaturated Fatty Acids in Caenorhabditis elegans
Published on: November 29, 2013
Fatty acid desaturation links germ cell loss to longevity through NHR-80/HNF4 in C. elegans
Jérôme Goudeau1, Stéphanie Bellemin, Esther Toselli-Mollereau
1Ecole normale supérieure de Lyon-CNRS-Université de Lyon Claude Bernard, Molecular Biology of the Cell Laboratory/UMR5239, Lyon, France.
Background:
Preventing germline stem cell proliferation extends lifespan in nematodes and flies. So far, studies on germline-longevity signaling have focused on daf-16/FOXO and daf-12/VDR. Here, we report on NHR-80/HNF4, a nuclear receptor that specifically mediates longevity induced by depletion of the germ line through a mechanism that implicates fatty acid monodesaturation.
Methods And Findings:
nhr-80/HNF4 is induced in animals lacking a germ line and is specifically required for their extended longevity. Overexpressing nhr-80/HNF4 increases the lifespan of germline-less animals. This lifespan extension can occur in the absence of daf-16/FOXO but requires the presence of the nuclear receptor DAF-12/VDR. We show that the fatty acid desaturase, FAT-6/SCD1, is a key target of NHR-80/HNF4 and promotes germline-longevity by desaturating stearic acid to oleic acid (OA). We find that NHR-80/HNF4 and OA must work in concert to promote longevity.
Conclusions:
Taken together, our data indicate that the NHR-80 pathway participates in the mechanism of longevity extension through depletion of the germ line. We identify fat-6 and OA as essential downstream elements although other targets must also be present. Thus, NHR-80 links fatty acid desaturation to lifespan extension through germline ablation in a daf-16/FOXO independent manner.
