Reduced expression of the insulin/insulin-like nutrient-sensing signalling (IIS) pathway gene daf-2 in adult Caenorhabditis elegans nematode worms increases longevity without affecting fecundity, but the effect of parental lifespan extension on adult offspring is largely unknown. We found that reduced IIS signalling in parental generation increases offspring fitness. We used RNA interference (RNAi) to silence daf-2 expression in sexually mature C. elegans hermaphrodites from three different genotypes: N2 wildtype, as well as ppw-1 and rrf-1 mutants that are deficient for RNAi in germline and soma, respectively. Long-lived daf-2 RNAi parents showed normal fecundity as self-fertilizing hermaphrodites and improved late-life reproduction when mated to males. Remarkably, the offspring of daf-2 RNAi parents produced more progeny and had higher Darwinian fitness across all three genotypes. Thus, reduced IIS signalling in adulthood improves offspring quality supporting the emerging view that suboptimally high levels of nutrient-sensing signalling in late-life lie at the heart of ageing.

https://www.biorxiv.org/content/early/2018/08/31/405019

Ed joins our lab from October 1st as BBSRC-funded postdoc on the project that deals with transgenerational effects of dietary restriction on ageing and Darwinian fitness.

Ed has a general interest in ageing, maternal effects, and quantitative genetics. In particular, he is interested in understanding how biological processes and life-history trade-offs contribute to the vast observed diversity in trait ageing trajectories. For his PhD, he used experimental and widescale comparative analyses to investigate the detrimental effects of increasing maternal age manifested on offspring traits.

David Murray joins our lab as ERC-funded Research Technician on a collaborative project with Simone Immler’s group to work on ageing and reproduction in zebrafish.

David has a long-standing interest in aquatic ecosystems and, after finishing his PhD in Glasgow,  worked in Vienna and Berlin, and, most recently, at UEA in Matt Gage’s lab. He has broad interests in sustainable aquaculture, conservation biology and phenotypic plasticity.

Elizabeth joined our lab in July 2018 as ERC-funded postdoc. She is working on the relationship between ageing and germline mutation rate.

Previously, Elizabeth worked on sex-specific life history effects of dietary manipulation, and the evolution and genetics of virus resistance in natural populations of fruit fly species.