Project description:Mitochondria are important organelles, but their function is often challenged by toxic products of metabolism as well as by pathogen attack. The mitochondrial unfolded protein response (UPRmt) monitors mitochondrial function in general: it is responsible for buffering the mitochondrial protein folding environment, and controlling mitochondria-nuclear balance of the electron transport chain (ETC) components. Besides, UPRmt plays essential roles in aging and lifespan. Here we found that knocking down histone deacetylase hda-1 robustly attenuated UPRmt and lifespan extension. We identified HDA-1 as a required factor for UPRmt activation and HDA-1 is associated with the homeobox domain-containing protein DVE-1.So, we performed ChIP-seq of worms to find DNA regions on which HDA-1 and DVE-1 bound, and if their binding depend on each other.
Project description:Epigenetic mechanisms including histone post-translational modifications control longevity in diverse organisms. Relatedly, loss of proper transcriptional regulation on a global scale is an emerging aspect of shortened lifespan, but the specific mechanisms linking these observations remain to be uncovered. Here, we describe a lifespan screen in S. cerevisiae, designed to identify altered amino acid residues of histones that alter yeast replicative aging. Our results reveal that lack of sustained H3K36 methylation is commensurate with increased cryptic transcription in a set of genes in old cells and shorter lifespan. Deletion of the K36me2/3 demethylase Rph1 increases H3K36me3 within these genes and suppresses cryptic transcript initiation to extend lifespan. We show that this aging phenomenon is conserved, as cryptic transcription also increases in old worms. We propose that epigenetic misregulation in aging cells leads to an increase in transcriptional noise that is detrimental to lifespan, and, importantly, this acceleration in aging can be reversed by restoring transcriptional fidelity.
Project description:Epigenetic mechanisms including histone post-translational modifications control longevity in diverse organisms. Relatedly, loss of proper transcriptional regulation on a global scale is an emerging aspect of shortened lifespan, but the specific mechanisms linking these observations remain to be uncovered. Here, we describe a lifespan screen in S. cerevisiae, designed to identify altered amino acid residues of histones that alter yeast replicative aging. Our results reveal that lack of sustained H3K36 methylation is commensurate with increased cryptic transcription in a set of genes in old cells and shorter lifespan. Deletion of the K36me2/3 demethylase Rph1 increases H3K36me3 within these genes and suppresses cryptic transcript initiation to extend lifespan. We show that this aging phenomenon is conserved, as cryptic transcription also increases in old worms. We propose that epigenetic misregulation in aging cells leads to an increase in transcriptional noise that is detrimental to lifespan, and, importantly, this acceleration in aging can be reversed by restoring transcriptional fidelity.
Project description:Epigenetic mechanisms including histone post-translational modifications control longevity in diverse organisms. Relatedly, loss of proper transcriptional regulation on a global scale is an emerging aspect of shortened lifespan, but the specific mechanisms linking these observations remain to be uncovered. Here, we describe a lifespan screen in S. cerevisiae, designed to identify altered amino acid residues of histones that alter yeast replicative aging. Our results reveal that lack of sustained H3K36 methylation is commensurate with increased cryptic transcription in a set of genes in old cells and shorter lifespan. Deletion of the K36me2/3 demethylase Rph1 increases H3K36me3 within these genes and suppresses cryptic transcript initiation to extend lifespan. We show that this aging phenomenon is conserved, as cryptic transcription also increases in old worms. We propose that epigenetic misregulation in aging cells leads to an increase in transcriptional noise that is detrimental to lifespan, and, importantly, this acceleration in aging can be reversed by restoring transcriptional fidelity.
Project description:SET-26, HCF-1, and HDA-1 are highly conserved chromatin factors with key roles in development and aging. Here we present mechanistic insights into how these factors regulate gene expression and modulate longevity in C. elegans. We show that SET-26 and HCF-1 cooperate to regulate a common set of genes, and both antagonize the histone deacetylase HDA-1 to limit longevity. We propose a model in which SET-26 recruits HCF-1 to chromatin in somatic cells, where they stabilize each other at the promoters of a subset of genes, particularly mitochondrial function genes, and regulate their expression. HDA-1 opposes SET-26 and HCF-1 on the regulation of a subset of their common target genes and in longevity. Our findings suggest that SET-26, HCF-1, and HDA-1 comprise a mechanism to fine-tune gene expression and longevity and likely have important implications for the mechanistic understanding of how these factors function in diverse organisms, particularly in aging biology.
Project description:SET-26, HCF-1, and HDA-1 are highly conserved chromatin factors with key roles in development and aging. Here we present mechanistic insights into how these factors regulate gene expression and modulate longevity in C. elegans. We show that SET-26 and HCF-1 cooperate to regulate a common set of genes, and both antagonize the histone deacetylase HDA-1 to limit longevity. We propose a model in which SET-26 recruits HCF-1 to chromatin in somatic cells, where they stabilize each other at the promoters of a subset of genes, particularly mitochondrial function genes, and regulate their expression. HDA-1 opposes SET-26 and HCF-1 on the regulation of a subset of their common target genes and in longevity. Our findings suggest that SET-26, HCF-1, and HDA-1 comprise a mechanism to fine-tune gene expression and longevity and likely have important implications for the mechanistic understanding of how these factors function in diverse organisms, particularly in aging biology.
Project description:A crucial step towards understanding the mechanisms underlying aging is to obtain an integrated account of the molecular changes during aging. To address this, we mapped the yeast (S. cerevisiae) transcriptome during the replicative lifespan of budding yeast using novel culture and computational methods.
Project description:Aneuploidy and aging are correlated; however, a causal link between these two phenomena has remained elusive. Here we show that yeast disomic for a single native yeast chromosome generally have a decreased replicative lifespan. In addition, the extent of this lifespan deficit correlates with the size of the extra chromosome. We identified a mutation in BUL1 that rescues both the lifespan deficit and a protein trafficking defect in yeast disomic for chromosome 5. Bul1 is an E4 ubiquitin ligase adaptor involved in a protein quality-control pathway that targets membrane proteins for endocytosis and destruction in the lysosomal vacuole thereby maintaining protein homeostasis. Concurrent suppression of the aging and trafficking phenotypes suggests that disrupted membrane protein homeostasis in aneuploid yeast may contribute to their accelerated aging. The data reported here demonstrate that aneuploidy can impair protein homeostasis, shorten lifespan, and may contribute to age-associated phenotypes. These are all CGH arrays comparing DNA content between the indicated strain of interest and a wt control.
Project description:One of the most important issues in the study of aging is to discover compounds with longevity-promoting activity and to unravel their underlying mechanisms. Queen honey bees are continuously fed royal jelly (RJ), and they live more than 10 times longer than hive workers, derived from the same diploid genome, which are fed it only for a short period of time during their larval stages. Therefore, RJ is likely to contain longevity-promoting agents for queens. RJ has been reported to possess diverse pharmacological properties. Furthermore, protease-treated RJ (pRJ) has additional beneficial activities. How RJ and pRJ exert these effects and which components in them play a critical role is largely unknown. The evolutionally conserved mechanisms that control lifespan have been indicated. The nematode Caenorhabditis elegans has been widely used for study of aging and longevity, due to its relatively short lifespan and well-established genetic pathways. The purpose of the present study was to elucidate whether RJ and its related substances contain the life span-extending activity in C. elegans and to obtain some insight into the active agents and their mechanisms. We found that both RJ and pRJ extended the lifespan of C. elegans. The life span-extending activity of pRJ was enriched by ODS column chromatography (pRJ-Fraction 5). pRJ-Fr. 5 extended the life span partly by acting through the FOXO transcription factor DAF-16, the activation of which is known to promote longevity in C. elegans by reducing insulin/IGF-1 signaling (IIS). pRJ-Fr. 5 induced changes in the expression of 3 genes encoding insulin-like peptides. Moreover, pRJ-Fr. 5 and reduced IIS shared some common features in terms of their effect on gene expression, such as up-regulation of dod-3 and down-regulation of dod-19, dao-4 and fkb-4. The dod-19 is a previously identified life span determinant in C. elegans, and the fkb-4 encodes a homologue of the mammalian FK506-binding protein. 10-Hydroxy-2-decenoic acid (10-HDA), which was present in high concentration in pRJ-Fr. 5, increased the lifespan independently of DAF-16 activity.These results demonstrate that RJ and its related substances extended the life span in C. elegans, suggesting that RJ may contain longevity-promoting factors common to diverse species across phyla. pRJ-Fr. 5 had higher life span-extending activity than either RJ or pRJ and extended the life span in part through the IIS-DAF-16 pathway. We provide the first evidence that 10-HDA, a defined natural product in RJ, extended organismal lifespan. It is noteworthy that 10-HDA performed its lifespan-extending function through a mechanism totally different from the IIS-DAF-16 pathway. Further search and characterization of the lifespan-extending agents in RJ and pRJ may broaden our understanding of the gene network of longevity regulation in diverse species and provide the possibility for nutraceutical interventions in the aging process. C. elegans N2 hermaphrodites were untreated or treated with pRJ-Fr. 5 (25mg/ml) for 24 h starting at the larval 4 (L4) stage.
Project description:Here, we analyzed 76 ecologically diverse wild yeast isolates and discovered a wide diversity of replicative lifespan. Phylogenetic analyses pointed to genes and environmental factors that strongly interact to modulate the observed aging patterns. We then identified genetic networks causally associated with natural variation in replicative lifespan across wild yeast isolates, as well as genes, metabolites and pathways, many of which have never been associated with yeast lifespan in laboratory settings. In addition, a combined analysis of lifespan-associated metabolic and transcriptomic changes revealed unique adaptations to interconnected amino acid biosynthesis, glutamate metabolism and mitochondrial function in long-lived strains. Overall, our multi-omic and lifespan analyses across diverse isolates of the same species shows how gene-environment interactions shape cellular processes involved in phenotypic variation such as lifespan.