Ouroboros on Longevity Mutants and Germ Cells
Ouroboros likes the recent work on gene expression similarities between somatic cells and germ cells in longevity mutants: "both the germ line and soma are made of cells. How is it that the soma is mortal while the germ line is, for practical purposes, immortal? ... the germ line and soma are maintained in different ways, either in quality or extent. The germ line is doing something differently than the soma, the upshot of which is that the germ line is immortal. ... A strict interpreter of the theory would presume that this 'something' is resource-intensive, so that it wouldn’t be possible to apply the strategy to the soma. It's also possible, however, that it's simply inconsistent with optimal somatic functions ... [but researchers] have shown that in long-lived mutants of the worm C. elegans, somatic tissues start acting like germ line cells. ... Does the soma-to-germ line transition occur in other long-lived mutants, or in calorie restricted animals?" That would be an interesting discovery if it is the case.