A new study published in the journal Southeastern Naturalist is the first to document that American alligators (Alligator mississippiensis) on the Atlantic and Gulf coasts occasionally eat three shark species and one species of stingray. An American alligator (Alligator mississippiensis) caught a nurse shark in the Ding Darling National Wildlife Refuge in Sanibel, Florida. Image credit: U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. “Despite the freshwater and...
![KLFs are a subfamily of zinc finger transcriptional regulators with highly characterized roles in proliferation, survival, metabolism, and response to stress. Hsieh et al demonstrate that KLFs are critical determinants of aging, influencing both lifespan and age-related deterioration, and are broadly required for lifespan extension in all four mechanistically distinct longevity models tested. Importantly, the team provides evidence that these effects are mediated by KLF regulation of autophagy (autophagy was assessed using a GFP::LGG-1 translational reporter; GFP-positive puncta [red arrow] were counted in 30-150 total hypodermal seam cells in 10–20 animals) and are conserved in a mammalian system via a functional ortholog, KLF4. Together, the findings provide a role for the KLFs as a transcriptional regulatory point in longevity. Image credit: Hsieh et al, doi: 10.1038/s41467-017-00899-5.](https://cdn.sci.news/images/2017/10/image_5324-Aging-Pathway-195x110.jpg)
