Researchers discovered that long-lived organisms often exhibit high expression of genes involved in DNA repair, RNA transport, and cellular skeleton organization and low expression of genes involved in inflammation and energy consumption.
What causes a longer lifespan? A crucial component of the puzzle, according to a recent study by biologists at theVera Gorbunova, the Doris Johns Cherry professor of biology and medicine, Andrei Seluanov, the first author of the publication, Jinlong Lu, a postdoctoral research fellow in Gorbunova’s lab, and other researchers looked into genes related to longevity in a recent paper published inTheir findings indicated that two regulatory mechanisms governing gene expression, known as the...
The opposite was true for short-lived species, which tended to have high expression of genes involved in energy metabolism and inflammation and low expression of genes involved in DNA repair, RNA transport, and microtubule organization.When the researchers analyzed the mechanisms that regulate the expression of these genes, they found two major systems at play. The negative lifespan genes—those involved in energy metabolism and inflammation—are controlled by circadian networks.