Coherent anti-Stokes Raman scattering (CARS) spectroscopy in Caenorhabditis elegans and Globodera pallida: evidence for an ivermectin-activated decrease in lipid stores.

Background: Macrocyclic lactones are arguably the most successful chemical class with efficacy against parasitic nematodes. Here we investigated the effect of the macrocyclic lactone ivermectin on lipid homeostasis in the plant parasitic nematode Globodera pallida and provide new insight into its mode of action.

Results: A non-invasive, non-destructive, label-free and chemically selective technique called Coherent anti-Stokes Raman scattering (CARS) spectroscopy was used to study lipid stores in G.

Multiple excitatory and inhibitory neural signals converge to fine-tune Caenorhabditis elegans feeding to food availability.

How an animal matches feeding to food availability is a key question for energy homeostasis. We addressed this in the nematode Caenorhabditis elegans, which couples feeding to the presence of its food (bacteria) by regulating pharyngeal activity (pumping). We scored pumping in the presence of food and over an extended time course of food deprivation in wild-type and mutant worms to determine the neural substrates of adaptive behavior.

Metabolomics analysis uncovers that dietary restriction buffers metabolic changes associated with aging in Caenorhabditis elegans.

Dietary restriction (DR) is one of the most universal means of extending lifespan. Yet, whether and how DR specifically affects the metabolic changes associated with aging is essentially unknown. Here, we present a comprehensive and unbiased picture of the metabolic variations that take place with age at the whole organism level in Caenorhabditis elegans by using (1)H high-resolution magic-angle spinning (HR-MAS) nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) analysis of intact worms.

Meeting report: 2012 Caenorhabditis elegans Neurobiology meeting, EMBL Advanced Training Centre, Germany.

Some of the finest minds in the field of Caenorhabditis elegans neurobiology were brought together from 14 June to 17 June 2012 in the small, quaint and picturesque German city of Heidelberg for the biannual C. elegans neurobiology conference. Held at the EMBL Advanced Training Centre and wonderfully organised by Diah Yulianti, Jean-Louis Bessereau, Gert Jansen and William Schafer, the meeting contained 62 verbal presentations and hundreds of posters that were displayed around the double-helical walkways that looped throughout the conference centre.

Pyruvate imbalance mediates metabolic reprogramming and mimics lifespan extension by dietary restriction in Caenorhabditis elegans.

Dietary restriction (DR) is the most universal intervention known to extend animal lifespan. DR also prevents tumor development in mammals, and this effect requires the tumor suppressor PTEN. However, the metabolic and cellular processes that underly the beneficial effects of DR are poorly understood.

Life span extension by resveratrol, rapamycin, and metformin: The promise of dietary restriction mimetics for an healthy aging.

Life expectancy at the turn of the 20th century was 46 years on average worldwide and it is around 65 years today. The correlative increase in age-associated diseases incidence has a profound public health impact and is an important matter of concern for our societies. Aging is a complex, heterogeneous, and multifactorial phenomenon, which is the consequence of multiple interactions between genes and environment.