Caenorhabditis elegans Battling Starvation Stress: Low Levels of Ethanol Prolong Lifespan in L1 Larvae
Figure 1
Low concentrations of ethanol extend lifespan of arrested wild-type (N2) and pcm-1 mutant L1 larvae.
Following hypochlorite treatment of wild-type N2 (black line) or pcm-1 mutant (red line) gravid adults, eggs were isolated and incubated in M9 medium for 24 h at 20°C on a rotary shaker at 160 rpm as described in the “Methods” section. The resulting starved L1 larvae (300 N2 larvae/ml or 1000 pcm-1 larvae/ml) were then incubated at 20°C at 160 rpm in either 70 ml of M9 medium (panel A) or 70 ml of M9 medium supplemented with 17 mM ethanol (0.1%; panel B) or 17 mM ethanol and 13 µM cholesterol (5 µg/ml; panel C) and survival was scored every 48 hours until all larvae were dead. Using the Mantel-Cox logrank test, a p-value of 0.03 was found for the significance of the difference between the pcm-1 and N2 strains in panel B and a p-value of <0.0001 for these strains in panel C.