Abstract: Many model organisms were used to study mechanisms of aging and longevity, of which Caenorhabditis elegans is the most widely used one owing to its advantages of short life span, plentiful mutant resource and high conservation in signal pathways with humans. In the past 30 years, scientists have learned a lot from C. elegans research and provided us important informations to understand genetic regulation of longevity and aging.

Key words: model organism, Caenorhabditis elegans, aging, longevity