Nuclear Translocation of DAF-16
The FOXO transcription factor DAF-16 is the main effector of insulin/IGF signaling. DAF-16 activation results in long lifespan and increased stress resistance. Upon stress, hormones, food deprivation of heat DAF-16 becomes activated and migrates from the cytosol to the nucleus.
Here you can see how quickly the DAF-16 (FoxO3a) transcription factor enters the nucleus upon cellular stress. To visualize this process we performed timelapse microscopy with a transgenic strain of C. elegans that expresses DAF-16 fused to the green fluorescent protein (GFP) from the daf-16 promotor. Notice that nuclear translocation in larval animals is complete after the 3rd frame (9 minutes), while the same process takes more than 30 minutes in the adult worm. The worms shown here were freshly starved.
The worms shown in these pictures are well-fed adult animals. The animation is 3 times faster than above.