Review Volume 17, Issue 12 pp 2989—3002

Figure 3. Pathophysiology of pharyngeal senescence in aging C. elegans. High rate of pharyngeal pumping in early adulthood leads to mechanical damage (mechanical senescence) to the pharyngeal cuticle. This perforates the cuticle, allowing minor bacterial invasion of pharyngeal tissue. In later life in ~40% of individuals, the invasion spreads further, leading to widespread infection, pharyngeal swelling and death [49]. Bottom left: schematic representation of C. elegans anterior end (head), including the pharynx. A caveat here is that laboratory culture of C. elegans with E. coli is not necessarily representative of the experience of this organism in the wild.