Genome-wide study of aging and oxidative stress response in Drosophila melanogaster

S Zou, S Meadows, L Sharp… - Proceedings of the …, 2000 - National Acad Sciences
S Zou, S Meadows, L Sharp, LY Jan, YN Jan
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 2000National Acad Sciences
Aging is a universal but poorly understood biological process. Free radicals accumulate with
age and have been proposed to be a major cause of aging. We measured genome-wide
changes in transcript levels as a function of age in Drosophila melanogaster and compared
these changes with those caused by paraquat, a free-radical generator. A number of genes
exhibited changes in transcript levels with both age and paraquat treatment. We also found
genes whose transcript levels changed with age but not with paraquat treatment. This study …
Aging is a universal but poorly understood biological process. Free radicals accumulate with age and have been proposed to be a major cause of aging. We measured genome-wide changes in transcript levels as a function of age in Drosophila melanogaster and compared these changes with those caused by paraquat, a free-radical generator. A number of genes exhibited changes in transcript levels with both age and paraquat treatment. We also found genes whose transcript levels changed with age but not with paraquat treatment. This study suggests that free radicals play an important role in regulating transcript levels in aging but that they are not the only factors. This genome-wide survey also identifies candidates for molecular markers of aging.
National Acad Sciences