Science AMA Series: Hi, reddit! I’m Will Mair, assistant professor of
genetics and complex diseases at Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public
Health, and my lab recently found a causal link between RNA splicing and
aging
Abstract
Hello, reddit! My name is William Mair, and I’m an assistant professor
of genetics and complex diseases at Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public
Health. My lab recently published a paper in Nature which, for the first
time, reveals a causal link between a process known as “RNA splicing”
and aging. This research sheds important light on when and how our cells
deteriorate over time. Aging is a key risk factor for a variety of
chronic diseases, and our lab is working to identify what’s happening at
the molecular level in various organ systems that allows these diseases
to occur. What is RNA splicing? In order for bodies—and cells—to
maintain youthfulness, they must also maintain proper homeostasis. At
the cellular level, that means keeping the flow of biological
information, from genes to RNA to proteins, running smoothly and with
the right balance. While a considerable amount is known about how
dysfunction at the two ends of this process—genes and proteins—can
accelerate aging, strikingly little is known about how the middle part,
which includes RNA splicing, influences aging. Splicing enables one gene
to generate multiple proteins that can act in different ways and in
disparate parts of the body. To find this link, we designed a series of
experiments in the roundworm Caenorhabditis elegans to probe the
potential connections between splicing and aging. Because the worms’
cells are transparent we were able to use fluorescent genetic tools to
visualize the splicing of a single gene in real-time throughout the
aging process. After five days, some worms showed a youthful pattern of
splicing while others exhibited one indicative of premature aging. We
were able to use these differences in splicing (reflected fluorescently)
to predict individual worms’ lifespans prior to any overt signs of old
age. We still have much more to learn about this, but the findings open
up an entirely new avenue of investigation that could help us understand
how to live longer and healthier. I’ll be here to answer your questions
from 11:00 AM to 1:00 PM EST; Ask Me Anything! EDIT: It’s 11:00 AM and
we’re getting underway. Thanks for all your questions so far! I’m also
joined here by /u/carolineheintz, the first author of the paper. EDIT:
It’s 1:17 PM and we have to stop, but thank you for your great
questions! If you want to learn more, you can visit our lab website.