FIGURE 6.

Aging and death in Caenorhabditis females and hermaphrodites (simplified working model). In the absence of mating only hermaphrodites exhibit reproductive death, and this is triggered during reproductive maturation by signals from the germline. Removal of the germline by laser microsurgery blocks reproductive death, and markedly extends lifespan in hermaphrodites, removing the difference in lifespan between hermaphrodites and females. Germline ablation only modestly increases female lifespan (not depicted) (Kern et al., 2020).