Generations of longevity

摘要

For decades, ageing was considered to be the result of progressive damage culminating in catastrophic breakdown. Yet similar animals can have vastly different life-spans - a barn owl can expect to live less than 8 years, a parrot more than 30 years - suggesting that there are mutable genetic pathways that control longevity. By studying small animals with short lifespans, such as the roundworm Caenorhabditis elegans, scientists have identified key pathways that can modulate ageing1. One of these involves the COMPASS complex (most probably an H3K4me3 regulatory complex in C. elegans), an assembly of proteins that organizes DNA by chemically modifying a DNA-packaging protein called histone H3. Mutations in any of the three COMPASS sub-units lead to defects in histone regulation and, in C. elegans., to a longer life.