Galimov, Evgeniy R and Pryor, Rosina E and Poole, Sarah E and Benedetto, Alexandre and Pincus, Zachary and Gems, David (2018) Coupling of Rigor Mortis and Intestinal Necrosis during C. elegans Organismal Death. Cell Reports, 22 (10). pp. 2730-2741. ISSN 2211-1247
Full text not available from this repository.Abstract
Organismal death is a process of systemic collapse whose mechanisms are less well understood than those of cell death. We previously reported that death in C. elegans is accompanied by a calcium-propagated wave of intestinal necrosis, marked by a wave of blue autofluorescence (death fluorescence). Here, we describe another feature of organismal death, a wave of body wall muscle contraction, or death contraction (DC). This phenomenon is accompanied by a wave of intramuscular Ca2+release and, subsequently, of intestinal necrosis. Correlation of directions of the DC and intestinal necrosis waves implies coupling of these death processes. Long-lived insulin/IGF-1-signaling mutants show reduced DC and delayed intestinal necrosis, suggesting possible resistance to organismal death. DC resembles mammalian rigor mortis, a postmortem necrosis-related process in which Ca2+influx promotes muscle hyper-contraction. In contrast to mammals, DC is an early rather than a late event in C. elegans organismal death. VIDEO ABSTRACT.