Towards understanding the lifespan extension by reduced insulin signaling: bioinformatics analysis of DAF-16/FOXO direct targets in <i>Caenorhabditis elegans</i>

// Yan-Hui Li 1 and Gai-Gai Zhang 2 1 Institute of Cardiovascular Sciences and Key Laboratory of Molecular Cardiovascular Sciences, Ministry of Education, Peking University Health Science Center, Beijing, P. R. China 2 Special Medical Ward (Geratology Department), First Hospital of Tsinghua University, Beijing, P. R. China Correspondence to: Yan-Hui Li, email: // Keywords : lifespan, C. elegans, insulin signaling, FOXO direct targets, bioinformatics, Gerotarget Received : January 05, 2016 Accepted : March 16, 2016 Published : March 24, 2016 Abstract DAF-16, the C. elegans FOXO transcription factor, is an important determinant in aging and longevity. In this work, we manually curated FOXODB http://lyh.pkmu.cn/foxodb/ , a database of FOXO direct targets. It now covers 208 genes. Bioinformatics analysis on 109 DAF-16 direct targets in C. elegans found interesting results. (i) DAF-16 and transcription factor PQM-1 co-regulate some targets. (ii) Seventeen targets directly regulate lifespan. (iii) Four targets are involved in lifespan extension induced by dietary restriction. And (iv) DAF-16 direct targets might play global roles in lifespan regulation.