Longer RNA Transcripts Exhibit Greater Alterations in Amount with Aging

We present three lines of evidence supporting the biological importance of the uncovered transcriptome imbalance. First, in vertebrates the length association primarily displays a lower relative abundance of long transcripts in aging. Second, eight antiaging interventions of the Interventions Testing Program of the National Institute on Aging can counter this length association. Third, we find that in humans and mice the genes with the longest transcripts enrich for genes reported to extend lifespan, whereas those with the shortest transcripts enrich for genes reported to shorten lifespan. Perhaps the most pressing question relates to the origin of the length-associated transcriptome imbalance during aging. Our findings about the genes with the shortest and longest transcripts enriching for genes with different roles toward longevity could be viewed as support for longevity-related roles of genes driving the evolution of their transcript length. However, this explanation would presently only appear to account for a fraction of the genes that show a transcript length-associated change during aging. Turning to earlier literature, a length-associated transcriptome imbalance does not appear specific to aging itself. Moreover, there seem to be multiple potential molecular origins for a length-associated transcriptome imbalance. Most prominent among the specific molecular mechanisms, DNA damage has been explicitly demonstrated to yield a length-associated transcriptom...
Source: Fight Aging! - Category: Research Authors: Tags: Medicine, Biotech, Research Source Type: blogs