Recently, nine
Caenorhabditis elegans
genes, grouped into two pathways/clusters, were found to be implicated in healthspan in
C. elegans
and their homologues in humans, based on literature curation, WormBase data mining and bioinformatics analyses. Here, we further validated these genes experimentally in
C. elegans
. We downregulated the nine genes via RNA interference (RNAi), and their effects on physical function (locomotion in a swim assay) and on physiological function (survival after heat stress) were analysed in aged nematodes. Swim performance was negatively affected by the downregulation of
acox-1.1
,
pept-1
,
pak-2
,
gsk-3
and
C25G6.3
in worms with advanced age (twelfth day of adulthood) and heat stress resistance was decreased by RNAi targeting of
acox-1.1
,
daf-22
,
cat-4
,
pig-1
,
pak-2
,
gsk-3
and
C25G6.3
in moderately (seventh day of adulthood) or advanced aged nematodes. Only one gene,
sad-1
, could not be linked to a health-related function in
C. elegans
with the bioassays we selected. Thus, most of the healthspan genes could be re-confirmed by health measurements in old worms.
Assessing the Effects of the Naked Neck Gene on Chronic Heat Stress Resistance in Two Genetic Populations
