Project description:This set of arrays contains all microarray experiments done involving comparisons among C. elegans natural isolates and mutation-accumulation lines. Abstract: The evolutionary importance of gene-expression divergence is unclear: some studies suggest that it is an important mechanism for evolution by natural selection, whereas others claim that most between-species regulatory changes are neutral or nearly neutral. We examined global transcriptional divergence patterns in a set of Caenorhabditis elegans mutation-accumulation lines and natural isolate lines to provide insights into the evolutionary importance of transcriptional variation and to discriminate between the forces of mutation and natural selection in shaping the evolution of gene expression. We detected the effects of selection on transcriptional divergence patterns and characterized them with respect to coexpressed gene sets, chromosomal clustering of expression changes and functional gene categories. We directly compared observed transcriptional variation patterns in the mutation-accumulation and natural isolate lines to a neutral model of transcriptome evolution to show that strong stabilizing selection dominates the evolution of transcriptional change for thousands of C. elegans expressed sequences. An all pairs experiment design type is where all labeled extracts are compared to every other labeled extract. Computed
Project description:This set of arrays contains all microarray experiments done involving comparisons among C. elegans natural isolates and mutation-accumulation lines. Abstract: The evolutionary importance of gene-expression divergence is unclear: some studies suggest that it is an important mechanism for evolution by natural selection, whereas others claim that most between-species regulatory changes are neutral or nearly neutral. We examined global transcriptional divergence patterns in a set of Caenorhabditis elegans mutation-accumulation lines and natural isolate lines to provide insights into the evolutionary importance of transcriptional variation and to discriminate between the forces of mutation and natural selection in shaping the evolution of gene expression. We detected the effects of selection on transcriptional divergence patterns and characterized them with respect to coexpressed gene sets, chromosomal clustering of expression changes and functional gene categories. We directly compared observed transcriptional variation patterns in the mutation-accumulation and natural isolate lines to a neutral model of transcriptome evolution to show that strong stabilizing selection dominates the evolution of transcriptional change for thousands of C. elegans expressed sequences. An all pairs experiment design type is where all labeled extracts are compared to every other labeled extract. Keywords: all_pairs
Project description:Epigenetic modifications are thought to be important for gene expression changes during development and aging. However, besides the Sir2 histone deacetylase in somatic tissues and H3K4 trimethylation in germlines, there is scant evidence implicating epigenetic regulations in aging. The insulin/IGF-1 signaling (IIS) pathway is a major lifespan regulatory pathway. Here we show that progressive increases in gene expression and loss of H3K27me3 on IIS components are due, at least in part, to increased activity of the H3K27 demethylase UTX-1 during aging. RNAi of the utx-1 gene extended the mean lifespan of C. elegans by ~30%, dependent on DAF-16 activity and not additive in daf-2 mutants. The loss of utx-1 increased H3K27me3 on the Igf1r/daf-2 gene and decreased IIS activity leading to a more "naive" epigenetic state. Like stem cell reprogramming, our results suggest that reestablishing epigenetic marks lost during aging might help "reset" the developmental age of animal cells. Examination of H3K27me3 in young and old worms without or with Utx-1 RNAi.