Advancing Research
by funding Grant Programs and Fellowships
Driving Innovation
by guiding studies such as the FAST Initiative, the SuperAgers Initiative, and the TAME Trial
Furthering the Field
by supporting the infrastructure of three NIA Initiatives and leading the Amplifying Geroscience Initiative.
Top Breakthroughs driven by AFAR Experts
Delaying Disease by Targeting Aging
Saving Costs by Extending Healthspan
What are the Hallmarks of Aging?
How and Why Do We Age?
What is Geroscience?
What is the Longevity Dividend?
What's Next in aging research?
It is known that both genes and the environment regulate longevity. But Dr. Greer and his team recently found that longevity in the worm C. elegans is also regulated by non-genetic information inherited from ancestors. How this information, called epigenetic information, regulates longevity is still unknown.
Chromatin-based regulation is an important means of epigenetic regulation. In our cells, chromatin is composed of DNA that wraps around proteins called histones. Enzymes in the cell can put chemical tags onto histone proteins and DNA as well as take them off. These chemical tags determine the ability of the cell to express or not express certain genes, which in turn affects longevity.
Dr. Greer’s recent work has shown that longevity in C. elegans is determined not only by its DNA, but also by the epigenetic information encoded in these chemical tags from their ancestors. He hypothesizes that epigenetic information is stored and maintained from generation to generation through non-genetic modifications to DNA.
Dr. Greer and his team plan to leverage the genetic power of C. elegans to identify where these chemical tags are located, how they regulate gene expression and how they change with age. They hope to then define basic mechanisms of transgenerational inheritance and how our ancestors’ epigenetic code influences our own longevity. These results raise the exciting possibility that chromatin regulators may regulate longevity epigenetically in mammals as well.
