Author: Klass, M. R.
Description: At each molt a normal animal passes through “lethargus,” a stage in which feeding and locomotion are transiently arrested. In the dauerlarva stage, feeding is arrested indefinitely, and locomotion is markedly reduced. A simple quantitative assay, based on the exceptional resistance of dauerlarvae to sodium dodecyl sulfate (SDS), has been developed to study dauerlarva formation and its reversal. The SDS resistance of dauerlarvae requires both non-feeding and an especially impermeable cuticle. Dauerlarva formation can be efficiently induced by limiting the concentration of bacteria (the food supply), but not by complete starvation. Quantitative recovery to normal development can be induced by transfer to fresh medium with excess bacteria. Simpler stimuli can elicit recovery at slower rates, the principal factors besides nutrition being optimal ionic and osmotic conditions and a noninhibitory concentration of animals. There are identifiable stages in recovery, beginning with a resumption of feeding. The cuticle, ultrastructurally very different from normal cuticle, is shed at the next molt, after which development appears normal. A temperature-sensitive mutant, which forms dauerlarvae at high temperature despite the presence of abundant food, is described, and the use of dauerlarvae for further mutant isolation is discussed.
Subject headings: Aging; Lipofuscin; Nematoda; Reproduction; Temperature; Ultraviolet Rays; Caenorhabditis elegans; C elegans; Dauerlarva; Life span
Publication year: 1977
Journal or book title: Mechanisms of Ageing and Development
Volume: 6
Issue: 6
Pages: 413-429
Find the full text: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/0047637477900434
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Serial number: 3587