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Daf2 GeneOne of the leading researchers in this field is Gary Ruvkun, a professor of genetics at Harvard Medical School and Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston. In C. elegans, signals from the worm's brain activate the worm equivalent of insulin, fueling the animal's metabolism. When daf2 doesn't work properly, the worm burns less fuel and lives longer. When daf-2 gene does not work, that leads to the increased activity of enzymes that destroy free radicals, which result from metabolism of blood sugar. Dr. Ruvkun believes that the rate at which free radicals damage brains is a primary determinant of life span. The discovery has lead to studies in which centenarians genes are studied in order to see if they have variations of the daf-2 gene that delay aging. In terms of research, mutations in daf-2 have been shown by dr. Cynthia Kenyon to double the lifespan of the C. Elegans worms. Daf2 Gene - StudiesKimura, K.D., Tissenbaum, H.A., Liu, Y. and G. Ruvkun. 1997. daf-2, an insulin receptor-like gene that regulates longevity and diapause in C. elegans. Science 277: 942-946. Tissenbaum, H.A. and G. Ruvkun. 1998. An insulin-like signaling pathway affects both longevity and reproduction in C. elegans. Genetics 148: 703-717. Wolkow, C.A., Kimura, K.D. , Lee, M. and G. Ruvkun. 2000. C. elegans lifespan is regulated by insulin-like signaling in the nervous system. Science 290:147-50. Jennie B. Dorman, Bella Albinder, Terry Shroyer & Cynthia Kenyon. The age-1 and daf-2 genes function in a common pathway to control the lifespan of Caenorhabditis elegans. Genetics, volume 141, number 4, pages 1399-1406 (1995). Javier Apfeld, Cynthia Kenyon. Cell non-autonomy of C. elegans daf-2 function in the regulation of diapause and lifespan. Cell, v. 95, n.2, pp.199-210 (1998). Li, W. and G. Ruvkun 2003. daf-28 encodes a C. elegans insulin like ligand that acts in the DAF-2 insulin like signaling pathway and is regulated by environmental cues. Genes and Development, 17: 844-58.
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