Figure 9.

A hormonal signaling pathway that functionally couples the soma to the gonad in progeny producing worms. A signaling pathway that couples somatic homeostasis to the reproduction state in the gonads. In reproducing worms, biosynthesis of the sterol ligand DA by DAF-9 transduces a longevity signal from the gonads to the soma by activating the nuclear hormone receptor DAF-12, which, in turn, augments the transcriptional induction of longevity-promoting genes by potentiating DAF-16 nuclear localization.