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Gene Governing Age, Resilience and Lifespan Found ---In the lab worm C. elegans

4/30/2010

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British researchers from the University of Birmingham recently managed an astounding genetic breakthrough. They were able to identify the gene that controls the average lifespan of the laboratory worm Caenorhabditis elegans (C. elegans). In addition to this, the gene also appears to bear a significant influence on the creature's aging process. The team says that the gene is found in a wide number of animals, including humans, and that transposing the research in people could result in new methods of altering traits related to aging, immunity and resistance.

In the new work, which was sponsored with grant money from the Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council (BBSRC), it was discovered that the DAF-16 gene had the same effects in the close evolutionary relatives of C. elegans, which again raises hopes that the findings could be used in human studies as well. Details of the breakthrough study appear in the April 1 issue of the Public Library of Science's open-access scientific journal PLoS ONE.

“Aging is a process that all organisms experience, but at very different rates. We know that, even between closely related species, average lifespans can vary enormously. We wanted to find out how normal aging is being governed by genes and what effect these genes have on other traits, such as immunity. To do that, we looked at a gene that we already knew to be involved in the aging process, called DAF-16, to see how it may determine the different rates of aging in different species,” explains the leader of the work, UB professor Dr Robin May. Four related worm species were targeted for the new experiments.

“DAF-16 is part of a group of genes that drive the biological processes involved in aging, immunity and responses to physical or environmental stresses. The fact that subtle differences in DAF-16 between species seem to have such an impact on aging and health is very interesting and may explain how differences in lifespan and related traits have arisen during evolution,” May continues.

“Research using model organisms that uncovers the biology underpinning aging gives us the opportunity to understand some of the mechanisms that determine how humans age in a healthy, or at least normal, way. It is very important to develop a good understanding of healthy aging if we are to appreciate what happens to an older person's physiology when they become unwell or experience difficulties with everyday tasks such as recalling memories or moving around. Improving the health span to mirror increases in the lifespan is an important subject of BBSRC research,” adds UB professor Douglas Kell.

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Experts to Map the Fruit Fly Brain.

4/22/2010

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This will be done one neuron at a time

A group of scientists announces the development of a new computer model that is capable of producing a type of science never before thought possible. The team plans to create maps of the fruit fly brain one cell at a time, in a bid to produce the first map of how neurons interact in their cortex. The end goal is to determine how the neurons on the insect work together to perform even the simplest tasks. In order for this to become possible, the investigators first need to create networks of how the cells work together, in a research that could provide a powerful new tool for future investigations of the human brain as well, Wired reports.

According to scientists, there are about 100,000 neurons in the brain of a single fruit fly. Our cortices feature no less than 100 billion neurons, and so having a well-established starting point in mapping them could prove to be useful. At this point, one of the main obstacles in producing maps of how our own nerve cells interact is the fact that their synapses are simply too complex to handle. Each single neuron can connect to thousands of others, and stretch its axon for a few centimeters in the brain. Therefore, if the new work on the fruit fly is successful, experts could at least benefit from a clear starting point in their laborious work.

What the experts behind the new work are striving for is creating a “master plan” of the fruit fly brain. “We can see very beautiful and very complicated patterns. If you look at neurons at a better resolution, or look at regions you’ve never looked at before, you’ll find something new,” says Howard Hughes Medical Institute Janelia Farm Research Campus expert Hanchuan Peng. He presented the new model at the 51st Annual Drosophila Research Conference, on April 9. Details of the work also appear in a paper published in the April issue of the respected scientific journal Nature Biotechnology.

“What we want to do in the next few years is to add more and more neuron reconstructions into this map. If you think about the fruit fly brain as the Earth, the little neurons will be the streets. We want to map a lot of neuron streets onto the Earth,” adds Peng, who is also a coauthor of the new journal entry. One of the main discoveries the team has made thus far was observing that particular sets of neurons, which at first glance seemed to be faithful copies of each other, exhibit importance functional differences.


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