Brief description: |
In the news recently is hype about red wine as the new fountain of youth because of a human homolog of the worm and yeast protein product of this gene, sir-2.1, that is induced by resveratrol, a component of some red wines. The abstract from a paper, A Role for SIR-2.1 Regulation of ER Stress in the following paper,Response Genes in Determining . Life Span . Developmental Cell , Volume 9 , Issue 5 , Pages 605 - 615M . Viswanathan , S . Kim , A . Berdichevsky , L . Guarente explains further. The authors say, "C. elegans SIR-2.1, a member of the Sir-2 family of NAD+-dependent protein deacetylases, has been shown to regulate nematode aging via the insulin/IGF pathway transcription factor daf-16. Treatment of C. elegans with the small molecule resveratrol, however, extends life span in a manner fully dependent upon sir-2.1, but independent of daf-16. Microarray analysis of worms treated with resveratrol demonstrates the transcriptional induction of a family of genes encoding prion-like glutamine/asparagine-rich proteins involved in endoplasmic reticulum (ER) stress response to unfolded proteins. RNA interference of abu-11, a member of this ER stress gene family, abolishes resveratrol-mediated life span extension, and overexpression of abu-11 extends the life span of transgenic animals. Furthermore, SIR-2.1 normally represses transcription of abu-11 and other ER stress gene family members, indicating that resveratrol extends life span by inhibiting sir-2.1-mediated repression of ER stress genes. Our findings demonstrate that abu-11 and other members of its ER stress gene family are positive determinants of C. elegans life span."
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