Systematic transcriptome analysis associated with physiological and chronological aging in Caenorhabditis elegans
- Seokjin Ham1,2,
- Sieun S. Kim1,2,
- Sangsoon Park1,
- Eun Ji E. Kim1,
- Sujeong Kwon1,
- Hae-Eun H. Park1,
- Yoonji Jung1 and
- Seung-Jae V. Lee1
- 1Department of Biological Sciences, Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology, Yuseong-gu, Daejeon 34141, South Korea
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↵2 These authors contributed equally to this work.
Abstract
Aging is associated with changes in a variety of biological processes at the transcriptomic level, including gene expression. Two types of aging occur during a lifetime: chronological and physiological aging. However, dissecting the difference between chronological and physiological ages at the transcriptomic level has been a challenge because of its complexity. We analyzed the transcriptomic features associated with physiological and chronological aging using Caenorhabditis elegans as a model. Many structural and functional transcript elements, such as noncoding RNAs and intron-derived transcripts, were up-regulated with chronological aging. In contrast, mRNAs with many biological functions, including RNA processing, were down-regulated with physiological aging. We also identified an age-dependent increase in the usage of distal 3′ splice sites in mRNA transcripts as a biomarker of physiological aging. Our study provides crucial information for dissecting chronological and physiological aging at the transcriptomic level.
Footnotes
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[Supplemental material is available for this article.]
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Article published online before print. Article, supplemental material, and publication date are at https://www.genome.org/cgi/doi/10.1101/gr.276515.121.
- Received December 20, 2021.
- Accepted October 19, 2022.
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