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Updated: Mar 22, 2026

Lipid Supplementation for Longevity and Gene Transcriptional Analysis in Caenorhabditis elegans
Published on: December 9, 2022
Food-derived sensory cues modulate longevity via distinct neuroendocrine insulin-like peptides
Murat Artan1, Dae-Eun Jeong2, Dongyeop Lee2
1Information Technology Convergence Engineering, Pohang University of Science and Technology, Pohang, Gyeongbuk 37673, South Korea;
Abstract:
Environmental fluctuations influence organismal aging by affecting various regulatory systems. One such system involves sensory neurons, which affect life span in many species. However, how sensory neurons coordinate organismal aging in response to changes in environmental signals remains elusive. Here, we found that a subset of sensory neurons shortens Caenorhabditis elegans' life span by differentially regulating the expression of a specific insulin-like peptide (ILP), INS-6. Notably, treatment with food-derived cues or optogenetic activation of sensory neurons significantly increases ins-6 expression and decreases life span. INS-6 in turn relays the longevity signals to nonneuronal tissues by decreasing the activity of the transcription factor DAF-16/FOXO. Together, our study delineates a mechanism through which environmental sensory cues regulate aging rates by modulating the activities of specific sensory neurons and ILPs.
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