A little piece of the germline’s immortality can be acquired by the ordinary cells of the body, and used to give the organism extra longevity, Massachusetts General Hospital researchers have found.

The insulin-signaling pathway activates a powerful gene regulator that controls many genetic pathways, including some that govern metabolism. The regulator can switch on in the worm’s ordinary body cells, or somatic cells, two genes that are usually active only in the germline cells and are kept permanently switched off in the somatic cells.

These two genes protect the cells’ DNA by reducing protein synthesis and cranking up the worm’s equivalent of an immune system. Higher-level protection of DNA is presumably one key to the germline cells’ immortality.