Evidence map›Paper›PMID 26814965›Full record

ArticleNature2016

The temporal scaling of Caenorhabditis elegans ageing.

Nicholas Stroustrup, Winston E Anthony, Zachary M Nash, Vivek Gowda, Adam Gomez, Isaac F López-Moyado, Javier Apfeld, Walter Fontana

Abstract read
In one paragraph

Article in Nature, 2016. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 104 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.

0numbers the graph read from it
0cells of the map it votes in
104citing papers in PubMed, 1 pooled it
14.1field-weighted citation impact, top 1% of its field
1 · What the graph read from it

What it found

Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.

The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.

2 · The registry

The trial behind it

Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.

Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.

3 · Its place in the literature

Who cites it

104 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it, 200 citations in OpenAlex.

  1. Pooled it
  2. Article
  3. Article
  4. Article
  5. Article
  6. Article
  7. Distribution Analysis of the Lifespan Trait in Drosophila.International journal of molecular sciences · 2025
    Article
  8. Article
  9. Review
  10. Review
  11. Review
  12. Review
  13. Berberine Extends Lifespan inAntioxidants (Basel, Switzerland) · 2025
    Article
  14. Article
  15. Article
  16. Article
  17. The Power of a Complex Systems Perspective to Elucidate Aging.The journals of gerontology. Series A, Biological sciences and medical sciences · 2024
    Article
  18. Transcriptional drift in aging cells: A global decontroller.Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America · 2024
    Article
  19. Article
  20. Article

44 more citing papers are in PubMed but not listed here.

4 · The record

Corrections and comments

5 · Who and what money

Authors and funding

8 authors at 2 institutions in 1 country.

Nicholas StroustrupDepartment of Systems Biology, Harvard Medical School, Boston, Massachusetts 02115, USA.
Winston E AnthonyDepartment of Systems Biology, Harvard Medical School, Boston, Massachusetts 02115, USA.
Zachary M NashDepartment of Systems Biology, Harvard Medical School, Boston, Massachusetts 02115, USA.
Vivek GowdaDepartment of Systems Biology, Harvard Medical School, Boston, Massachusetts 02115, USA.
Adam GomezDepartment of Systems Biology, Harvard Medical School, Boston, Massachusetts 02115, USA.
Isaac F López-MoyadoDepartment of Systems Biology, Harvard Medical School, Boston, Massachusetts 02115, USA.
Javier ApfeldDepartment of Systems Biology, Harvard Medical School, Boston, Massachusetts 02115, USA.
Walter FontanaDepartment of Systems Biology, Harvard Medical School, Boston, Massachusetts 02115, USA.
Center for Systems Biology · USHarvard University · US

Funding

Enhancing and expanding the CGC Strain CollectionP40OD010440 · OD · UNIVERSITY OF MINNESOTA · PI Aric L Daul, Ann E. Rougvie · 2012 to 2026
$7.5M
The variability of the lifespan phenotype in C.elegansR01AG034994 · NIA · HARVARD MEDICAL SCHOOL · PI FONTANA, WALTER · 2010 to 2014
$1.6M
NIA NIH HHS R01 AG034994NIH HHS P40 OD010440
6 · The paper itself

Abstract

The process of ageing makes death increasingly likely, involving a random aspect that produces a wide distribution of lifespan even in homogeneous populations. The study of this stochastic behaviour may link molecular mechanisms to the ageing process that determines lifespan. Here, by collecting high-precision mortality statistics from large populations, we observe that interventions as diverse as changes in diet, temperature, exposure to oxidative stress, and disruption of genes including the heat shock factor hsf-1, the hypoxia-inducible factor hif-1, and the insulin/IGF-1 pathway components daf-2, age-1, and daf-16 all alter lifespan distributions by an apparent stretching or shrinking of time. To produce such temporal scaling, each intervention must alter to the same extent throughout adult life all physiological determinants of the risk of death. Organismic ageing in Caenorhabditis elegans therefore appears to involve aspects of physiology that respond in concert to a diverse set of interventions. In this way, temporal scaling identifies a novel state variable, r(t), that governs the risk of death and whose average decay dynamics involves a single effective rate constant of ageing, kr. Interventions that produce temporal scaling influence lifespan exclusively by altering kr. Such interventions, when applied transiently even in early adulthood, temporarily alter kr with an attendant transient increase or decrease in the rate of change in r and a permanent effect on remaining lifespan. The existence of an organismal ageing dynamics that is invariant across genetic and environmental contexts provides the basis for a new, quantitative framework for evaluating the manner and extent to which specific molecular processes contribute to the aspect of ageing that determines lifespan.

Indexed as

AgingAnimalsCaenorhabditis elegansCaenorhabditis elegans ProteinsDeathDietForkhead Transcription FactorsKineticsLongevityOxidative StressPhosphatidylinositol 3-KinasesReceptor, InsulinRiskTemperatureTime FactorsTranscription FactorsAGE-1 protein, C elegansCaenorhabditis elegans Proteinsdaf-16 protein, C elegansDAF-2 protein, C elegansForkhead Transcription Factorsheat shock factor-1, C elegansHIF-1 protein, C elegansPhosphatidylinositol 3-KinasesReceptor, InsulinTranscription Factors

Identifiers

PMID26814965
PMCPMC4828198
OpenAlexW2271522653

What OpenQuestion holds

Textmetadata
LicenceTDM
Read underepoch 390

Registered trials

None linked

Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.