0000000000789296

AUTHOR

Sanjana Sood

Longevity-related molecular pathways are subject to midlife “switch” in humans

Emerging evidence indicates that molecular aging may follow nonlinear or discontinuous trajectories. Whether this occurs in human neuromuscular tissue, particularly for the noncoding transcriptome, and independent of metabolic and aerobic capacities, is unknown. Applying our novel RNA method to quantify tissue coding and long noncoding RNA (lncRNA), we identified ~800 transcripts tracking with age up to ~60 years in human muscle and brain. In silico analysis demonstrated that this temporary linear “signature” was regulated by drugs, which reduce mortality or extend life span in model organisms, including 24 inhibitors of the IGF‐1/PI3K/mTOR pathway that mimicked, and 5 activators that oppos…

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iGEMS : an integrated model for identification of alternative exon usage events

DNA microarrays and RNAseq are complementary methods for studying RNA molecules. Current computational methods to determine alternative exon usage (AEU) using such data require impractical visual inspection and still yield high false-positive rates. Integrated Gene and Exon Model of Splicing (iGEMS) adapts a gene-level residuals model with a gene size adjusted false discovery rate and exon-level analysis to circumvent these limitations. iGEMS was applied to two new DNA microarray datasets, including the high coverage Human Transcriptome Arrays 2.0 and performance was validated using RT-qPCR. First, AEU was studied in adipocytes treated with (n = 9) or without (n = 8) the anti-diabetes drug,…

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