Sexual interactions with males shorten the lifespan of the opposite sex in several species, including Caenorhabditis elegans, but the mechanisms are not fully understood. Here the authors use transcriptomic profiling in C. elegans to systematically identify the genetic pathways involved in male-induced demise, which include upregulation of a conserved ion channel that regulates fat metabolism.
- Lauren N. Booth
- Cheng Shi
- Anne Brunet