About the Authors

Emily R Troemel

Affiliations Department of Genetics, Harvard Medical School, Boston, Massachusetts, United States of America , Department of Molecular Biology, Massachusetts General Hospital, Boston, Massachusetts, United States of America

Stephanie W Chu

Affiliation Department of Biology, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States of America

Valerie Reinke

Affiliation Department of Genetics, Yale University School of Medicine, New Haven, Connecticut, United States of America

Siu Sylvia Lee

Contributed equally to this work with: Siu Sylvia Lee, Frederick M Ausubel, Dennis H Kim

Affiliation Department of Molecular Biology and Genetics, Cornell University, Ithaca, New York, United States of America

Frederick M Ausubel

Contributed equally to this work with: Siu Sylvia Lee, Frederick M Ausubel, Dennis H Kim

Affiliations Department of Genetics, Harvard Medical School, Boston, Massachusetts, United States of America , Department of Molecular Biology, Massachusetts General Hospital, Boston, Massachusetts, United States of America

Dennis H Kim

Contributed equally to this work with: Siu Sylvia Lee, Frederick M Ausubel, Dennis H Kim

To whom correspondence should be addressed. E-mail: dhkim@mit.edu

Affiliation Department of Biology, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States of America

Competing Interests

The authors have declared that no competing interests exist.

Author Contributions

ERT, SSL, FMA, and DHK conceived and designed the experiments. ERT, SWC, VR, SSL, and DHK performed the experiments. ERT, SSL, and DHK analyzed the data. ERT, SSL, FMA, and DHK wrote the paper. SSL and DHK carried out initial pathogenesis and longevity experiments with sek-1, and VR and DHK carried out initial microarray analysis of sek-1–regulated genes. ERT carried out all subsequent pathogenesis assays with pmk-1; microarray and qRT-PCR analysis of pmk-1, daf-16, and pathogen-treated worms. SSL performed all lifespan experiments and associated statistical analysis. SWC carried out RNAi analysis of PMK-1–regulated genes.