Bacterial diet and weak cadmium stress affect the age-specific survival rates of Caenorhabditis elegans and its resistance against severe stressors

Stressors may have negative or positive effects in dependence of the dose (hormesis). We studied this phenomenon in Caenorhabditis elegans by applying weak or severe abiotic (cadmium, CdCl2) and/or biotic stress (different bacterial diets) during cultivation/breeding of the worms, and determining developmental speed or survival rates and performing transcriptome profiling and RT-qPCR analyses to explore the genetic basis of the detected phenotypic differences. This study showed that a bacterial diet resulting in higher levels of energy resources in the worms (E. coli OP50 feeding) or weak abiotic and biotic stress especially promote the resistance against severe abiotic or biotic stress and the age-specific survival rate of WT. Five experimental conditions; mostly three replicates per experimental condition; four contrasts between test and control conditions functionally analyzed.