Nematodes were grown and maintained at 20°C; ambient temperatures during handling (transfer) of worms were between 20 and 25°C. Maintenance was on nematode growth medium (NGM) agar plates spotted with E. coli OP50 as food source, as described elsewhere [46 (link)]. Synchronization was performed by washing, followed by centrifugation to separate the eggs from the nematodes. Eggs were transferred to fresh NGM agar plates (Carl Roth, 6494) and allowed to hatch and grow for 64 h. Lifespan assays with C. elegans-specific RNA interference were conducted as previously described [47 (link)]. Briefly, young adult worms, 64 h after synchronization, were transferred to NGM agar plates containing 1 mM IPTG (Thermo Fisher, R0392), 100 µg/ml ampicillin (Carl Roth, K029) and, if necessary, 12.5 μg/ml tetracycline (AppliChem, A2228). Plates were spotted with E. coli HT115 (DE3) containing L4440 empty vector (Addgene, 1654) or L4440 containing a f53e2.1, y39h10a.6, t07d1.2 or y54e5a.7 DNA fragment. For the first 10 d, nematodes were transferred to fresh plates daily; thereafter, they were transferred every other day. Experiments were performed in quintuplicates and two independent times. Worms showing no movement, no reaction to gentle stimulation and no pharyngeal pumping were scored as dead. Worms lost or disintegrated due to internal hatchings were censored.