[
International Worm Meeting,
2021]
Though aging is inevitable, an average human life expectancy has substantially increased for the last 150 years, but the extension of lifespan does not necessarily equate with improved healthspan. The nervous system and neuronal cells gradually deteriorate with aging, but the molecular basis of neuronal aging, especially the aging of sensory neurons and sensory functions, remains a mystery. We employ C. elegans to address the following questions: (1) When does aging in the sensory neurons and sensory neurons related functions start? (2) Does aging in the neurons always occur at the same time or do different neuronal cells display distinct patterns? (3) Can we slow down neuronal aging? To this end, we generated several transgenic strains with various neuronal markers (endogenous and fosmid-based) labeled with various fluorescent tags. Then, using our fluorescence-based system, we examined whether a variety of mutant strains could reverse the neuronal aging. Our initial analysis has started to answer some of these questions. We will present the initial results in the meeting.