Development of aging markers for screening for genes regulating chronological aging

2014 Fiscal Year Final Research Report

• Project/Area Number: 24510274
• Research Category: Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research (C)
• Allocation Type: Multi-year Fund
• Section: 一般
• Research Field: Genome biology
• Research Institution: The Institute of Physical and Chemical Research
• Principal Investigator: MATSUYAMA Akihisa 独立行政法人理化学研究所, 吉田化学遺伝学研究室, 専任研究員 (90399444)
• Project Period (FY): 2012-04-01 – 2015-03-31
• Keywords: 経時老化 / リバースプロテオミクス

Outline of Final Research Achievements

Chronological lifespan (CLS) is defined as the length of time a cell can survive without cell division, which may serve as a good model for studying the mechanisms regulating life span of differentiated cells that are generally non-dividing. Chronological age of cells has been estimated by measuring colony forming units of cells in stationary phase. However, this method is a very time-consuming and daunting task. To address this issue, we tried to develop molecular markers that can provide an indirect measure of chronological age of a cell using fission yeast. Using the strain collection, a set of strains that can express each of the fission yeast ORFs with small epitope tags, we identified proteins whose expression levels were altered according to the time in stationary phase. Tagging of these candidates with fluorescent proteins allows immediate measuring of cell age from the fluorescence intensity. These aging markers will help identify factors regulating CLS.

Free Research Field

分子生物学