Cell 134,291–303 (2008)

By comparing the long list of messenger RNAs produced in young and old roundworms, biologists have identified three proteins that control ageing independently of environmental insults and the cellular wear and tear that accumulates over time. The proteins, ELT-3, ELT-5 and ELT-6, participate in the senescence process of Caenorhabditis elegans as a part of the animal's own developmental program.

Stuart Kim of Stanford University Medical Center in California and his team silenced the genes encoding ELT-5 and ELT-6 in some of their worms. This showed that these proteins lower ELT-3 expression in adult worms. ELT-3, the researchers found, regulates a host of downstream genes involved in turning transparent and spritely young worms into pigmented and more flaccid oldsters.