Presenter: Hannah Lewack – Biology
Faculty Mentor(s): Rose Al-Saadi
Session: (In-Person) Poster Presentation
Neurodegenerative diseases affect 50 million Americans each year and Alzheimer’s alone affects about 5 million. Alzheimer’s places a substantial economic burden on our healthcare system, estimated to be 305 billion dollars in 2020. Despite this cost, knowledge of the molecular mechanisms that contribute to healthy aging remains limited. We believe that a key to addressing this gap lies in Caenorhabditis elegans nematodes. Male C. elegans have 91 sex-specific neurons that are necessary for reproduction, allowing successful mating to be a good indicator of neuronal health. This system has been used to identify several pathways and genes that regulate aging, including the insulin-like growth factor 1 receptor daf-2. Our findings show that mutations in daf-2 result in extended lifespan, and slow the decline of male mating ability at old age. Due to the ubiquitous expression of daf-2, its role in male mating is difficult to associate with specific tissues. The auxin-induced degron (AID) system allows for targeted degradation of proteins in a spatially and temporally-controlled manner. Using this system, we will test the effects of DAF-2 degradation in the intestinal, neuronal, and hypodermal cells on male mating success. Due to DAF-2 mutant’s extension on lifespan, we hypothesize that DAF-2 degradation in tissues will delay age-induced mating decline. This project will give additional insights to the importance of the metabolic pathway and its impact on neuronal functions.