How Important is the Error Rate in Protein Synthesis to the Pace of Aging?

Cellular biochemistry is a messy process, a soup of colliding molecules moving at high speed and reacting with one another. Within this soup, complex processes of assembly and interaction take place. The blueprints of genes in DNA are converted into RNA via one complicated set of reading and assembly mechanisms in the cell nucleus. That RNA exits the nucleus and is then processed in ribosomes to produce proteins from amino acid fragments. Proteins are then folded in to the correct shape in the endoplasmic reticulum, and then must further be transported to a final destination within the cell. All of this takes place within a dense storm of fast-moving molecules of all sorts, and any number of inappropriate interactions and reactions. Quality control is important, as all of the processes mentioned above can fail. Errant proteins and damaged structures are promptly identified and removed, broken down into amino acid fragments for recycling. Evolution has produced a system of assembly and quality control that has a high fidelity, suggesting that it is important for cell and tissue function for protein manufacture to produce few errors. But are variations in error rate an important contribution to differences in life span between species? Thermophiles reveal the clues to longevity: precise protein synthesis During the lifetime of an organism, proteins are constantly exposed to stressors that impair their function. Protein homeostasis networks have evolved to...
Source: Fight Aging! - Category: Research Authors: Tags: Medicine, Biotech, Research Source Type: blogs