Adaptation to metabolic dysfunction during aging: Making the best of a bad situation.

This article reviews another form of communication between the mitochondria and the nucleus, in which the dysfunction of the former triggers changes in the expression of nuclear genes to compensate for it. The most extensively studied of these signaling pathways is the retrograde response whose effectors and downstream targets have been characterized. This response extends yeast replicative lifespan by adapting the organism to the mitochondrial dysfunction. Similar responses have been found in several other organisms, including mammals. Declining health and function during human aging incurs energetic costs. This compensation plays out differently in males and females, and variation in nuclear genes whose products affect mitochondrial function influences the outcome. Thus, the theme of mitochondria-nucleus communication as an adaptive response during aging appears very widespread. PMID: 28760705 [PubMed - as supplied by publisher]
Source: Experimental Gerontology - Category: Geriatrics Authors: Tags: Exp Gerontol Source Type: research