Papers for Journal Club

Pinkston, J., Garigan, D., Hansen, M., and Kenyon, C. (2006). Mutations that increase the life span of C. elegans inhibit tumor growth. Science 313(5789), 971-975.

Pinkston-Gosse, J. and Kenyon, C. (2007). DAF-16/FOXO targets genes that regulate tumor growth in Caenorhabditis elegans. Nature Genetics 39(11), 1403-1409.

These two papers explore the link between tumorigenesis and aging in C. elegans. The first paper describes the gld-1(-) tumor model and its regulation by the insulin/IGF-1 pathway. In the second paper, the authors examine the activity of DAF-16 target genes, and test whether these genes affect lifespan and tumor size in the gld-1(-) tumor model. They find that a subset of genes regulates both lifespan and tumor growth, underscoring the link between cancer and aging. Furthermore, the genes identified in this study provide clues as to a mechanism of tumor suppression.

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