Figure 5.

Effect of dld-1 suppression in the presence of FCCP and/or phosphine on worms expressing Aβ. (A) Mortality assay of C. elegans treated with the mitochondrial uncoupler FCCP. When the dld-1 gene was suppressed in the presence of 17.5 μM uncoupler, the compounded disruption of energy metabolism resulted in high level mortality in each of the three strains regardless of the presence of the Aβ peptide (n = 50–100 for each experiment). Three independent trials were run. Bars = mean ± SD. (B) Suppression of the dld-1 gene protects against the toxicity of phosphine independent of Aβ presence. dld-1 gene mutation, or suppression of the dld-1 gene by RNAi, reduced mortality caused by 500 ppm phosphine in both wild type (N2) and Aβ-expressing worms of strain CL4176. Three independent trials were run (n = 50–80 for each trial). Bars = mean ± SD.