A C. elegans mutant that lives twice as long as wild type.
Level 5 - mechanism / opinion, no new human data
Bench / model organism laboratory research (Caenorhabditis elegans)
PubMed 8247153 · doi:10.1038/366461a0
What was done
Investigated lifespan and developmental characteristics of fertile, active adult Caenorhabditis elegans hermaphrodites harboring mutations in the daf-2 gene, and evaluated the genetic requirement of daf-16 and its relationship to dauer larva formation.
What was found
Mutations in daf-2 caused adult hermaphrodite worms to live more than twice as long as wild-type worms. This lifespan extension required functional daf-16. The abstract provides no specific numerical survival times, counts, or statistical values.
Why it matters
This paper identified a specific genetic pathway capable of doubling organismal lifespan, demonstrating that longevity regulation can be genetically uncoupled from developmental arrest.
Limits
The study is limited to an invertebrate model organism (C. elegans) with no direct human data. The abstract lacks explicit sample sizes, specific quantitative lifespan measurements (e.g., mean or median survival days), and statistical effect estimates.
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