Figure 2. Inhibition of Genes Required for Autophagy Shortens the Long Lifespan of eat-2 Mutants.
(A) Survival curves of eat-2(ad1116) animals fed either control bacteria or bacteria expressing bec-1 dsRNA during adulthood at 20 °C. Mean lifespan was 23.7 d for control and 19.6 d for bec-1 RNAi, p < 0.0001, Log-rank (Mantel-Cox) test. This experiment was performed a total of six times, and bec-1 RNAi shortened the lifespan of eat-2 animals ∼15%–30%. Please see Table 1 for additional data.
(B) Survival curves of N2 wild-type animals (WT) fed either control bacteria or bacteria expressing bec-1 dsRNA during adulthood at 20 °C. These assays were performed concurrently with the eat-2 mutant lifespan analysis in Figure 2A. Mean lifespan was 17.3 d for control and 18.9 d for bec-1 RNAi. p = 0.045, Log-rank (Mantel-Cox) test. Depletion of bec-1 did not significantly change the lifespan of N2 or sterile fer-15(b26); fem-1(hc17) animals in any of six experiments. Please see Table 1 for additional data.
(C) Survival curves of eat-2(ad1116) animals fed either control bacteria or bacteria expressing vps-34 dsRNA during adulthood at 20 °C. Mean lifespan was 27.6 d for control and 22.8 d for vps-34 RNAi, p = 0.0003, Log-rank (Mantel-Cox) test. This experiment was performed a total of four times. Please see Table 1 for additional data.
(D) Survival curves of sterile fer-15(b26); fem-1(hc17) animals (WT) fed either control bacteria or bacteria expressing vps-34 dsRNA during adulthood at 20 °C. These assays were performed at the same time as the eat-2 lifespan analysis shown in Figure 2C. Mean lifespan was 21.5 d for control and 23.3 d for bec-1 RNAi. p = 0.14, Log-rank (Mantel-Cox) test. Depletion of vps-34 did not significantly change the lifespan of N2 or sterile fer-15(b26); fem-1(hc17) animals in each of six different experiments. Please see Table 1 for additional data.