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  3. Role of sirtuin genes in longevity
Title

Role of sirtuin genes in longevity

    Item Description
    Limited Access
    The author(s) chose to restrict access to this thesis to current Whitman students, faculty, and staff. Please log in to view it.
    Linked Agent
    Creator (cre): Brice, Jessica Alexandra
    Advisor (adv): Golden, Kendra
    Department (dpt): Whitman College. Biology Department
    Date
    May 11, 2011
    Graduation Year
    2011
    Abstract

    An organism’s ability to regulate gene expression in response to environmental factors such as nutrition levels and oxygen availability is critical for survival. Previous research has implicated sirtuin genes, which transcribe deacetylase proteins that regulate gene expression via deacetylase of either histone proteins or other proteins, in regulation of both oxygen and nutrient availability in mice. This research knocks down sirtuins in the dietary restriction pathway and the hypoxic response pathways in order to examine whether these molecular pathways act in a sirtuin-dependent mechanism in Caenorhabditis elegans. The findings showed that in both pathways, knockdown of sirtuin-dependent gene expression led to a decreased lifespan but did not mirror the lifespan of the worm strains that were either sirtuin mutant strains or sirtuin RNAi knockdowns in wild type worm strains. This indicates that both pathways are not sirtuin-dependent, although the mechanism of how these pathways increase longevity remains unclear. These findings point to the need for further research into the role of sirtuin genes within the cell and whether they actually function as longevity genes.

    Subject
    Longevity -- Genetics
    Caenorhabditis elegans
    Histone deacetylase
    Aging -- Genetic factors
    Caloric restriction
    Mutation (Biology)
    Gene expression
    Sirtuins
    Science
    Academic theses
    Whitman College 2011 -- Dissertation collection -- Biology Department
    Genre
    Theses
    Extent
    23 pages
    Permanent URL
    http://works.whitman.edu/1095
    Rights
    http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/InC/1.0/
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