Fig. 1

ATFS-1 dependent activation of the mitochondrial unfolded protein response (mitoUPR) in the long-lived mitochondrial mutants. a To monitor the activation of the mitoUPR, the mitochondrial mutants clk-1, isp-1, and nuo-6 were crossed to the Phsp-6::GFP transcriptional reporter strain. All three strains shown increased GFP expression indicating activation of the mitoUPR. b A time course during adulthood reveals that the activation of the mitoUPR persists during early adulthood. c, d Similarly, all three mitochondrial mutants show activation of the mitoUPR as early as day 1 and day 2 after hatching. e The activation of the mitoUPR reporter is dependent on the ATFS-1 transcription factor, as atfs-1 RNAi prevents GFP expression from nuo-6;Phsp-6::GFP worms. atfs-1 knockdown was initiated at the parental L4 stage and fluorescence was examined in young adult progeny. Error bars indicate SEM. *p < 0.05, **p < 0.01, ***p < 0.001. See Additional file 5: Table S5 for details on N and replicates