TimeFlies: an snRNA-seq aging clock for the fruit fly head sheds light on sex-biased aging.

ABSTRACT: Although multiple high-performing epigenetic aging clocks exist, few are based directly on gene expression. Such transcriptomic aging clocks allow us to extract age-associated genes directly. However, most existing transcriptomic clocks model a subset of genes and are limited in their ability to predict novel biomarkers. With the growing popularity of single-cell sequencing, there is a need for robust single-cell transcriptomic aging clocks. Moreover, clocks have yet to be applied to investigate the elusive phenomenon of sex differences in aging. We introduce TimeFlies, a pan-cell-type scRNA-seq aging clock for the Drosophila melanogaster head. TimeFlies uses deep learning to classify the donor age of cells based on genome-wide gene expression profiles. Using explainability methods,

SUBMITTER: Tennant N 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC11785003 | biostudies-literature | 2025 Jan

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature