Cell culture-based profiling across mammals reveals DNA repair and metabolism as determinants of species longevity
- Brigham and Women's Hospital, Harvard Medical School, United States
- University of Michigan Medical School, United States
- Albert Einstein College of Medicine, United States
- University of Rochester, United States
- Broad Institute, United States
Abstract
Mammalian lifespan differs by >100-fold, but the mechanisms associated with such longevity differences are not understood. Here, we conducted a study on primary skin fibroblasts isolated from 16 species of mammals and maintained under identical cell culture conditions. We developed a pipeline for obtaining species-specific ortholog sequences, profiled gene expression by RNA-seq and small molecules by metabolite profiling, and identified genes and metabolites correlating with species longevity. Cells from longer-lived species up-regulated genes involved in DNA repair and glucose metabolism, down-regulated proteolysis and protein transport, and showed high levels of amino acids but low levels of lysophosphatidylcholine and lysophosphatidylethanolamine. The amino acid patterns were recapitulated by further analyses of primate and bird fibroblasts. The study suggests that fibroblast profiling captures differences in longevity across mammals at the level of global gene expression and metabolite levels and reveals pathways that define these differences.
Article and author information
Author details
Funding
NIH Office of the Director (AG047745)
- Vadim N Gladyshev
National Institutes of Health (AG047200)
- Zhengdong D Zhang
- Andrei Seluanov
- Vera Gorbunova
- Vadim N Gladyshev
National Institutes of Health (AG023122)
- Vadim N Gladyshev
National Institutes of Health (DK089503)
- Vadim N Gladyshev
National Institutes of Health (DK097153)
- Vadim N Gladyshev
The funders had no role in study design, data collection and interpretation, or the decision to submit the work for publication.
Reviewing Editor
- Amy J Wagers, Harvard University, United States
Version history
- Received: June 26, 2016
- Accepted: November 21, 2016
- Accepted Manuscript published: November 22, 2016 (version 1)
- Version of Record published: December 9, 2016 (version 2)
Copyright
© 2016, Ma et al.
This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License permitting unrestricted use and redistribution provided that the original author and source are credited.
Metrics
-
- 4,360
- views
-
- 904
- downloads
-
- 67
- citations
Views, downloads and citations are aggregated across all versions of this paper published by eLife.
Download links
A two-part list of links to download the article, or parts of the article, in various formats.
Downloads (link to download the article as PDF)
Open citations (links to open the citations from this article in various online reference manager services)
Cite this article (links to download the citations from this article in formats compatible with various reference manager tools)
Cell culture-based profiling across mammals reveals DNA repair and metabolism as determinants of species longevity
eLife 5:e19130.
https://doi.org/10.7554/eLife.19130
Further reading
-
- Cell Biology
- Computational and Systems Biology
Circular RNAs represent a class of endogenous RNAs that regulate gene expression and influence cell biological decisions with implications for the pathogenesis of several diseases. Here, we disclose a novel gene-regulatory role of circHIPK3 by combining analyses of large genomics datasets and mechanistic cell biological follow-up experiments. Using time-course depletion of circHIPK3 and specific candidate RNA-binding proteins, we identify several perturbed genes by RNA sequencing analyses. Expression-coupled motif analyses identify an 11-mer motif within circHIPK3, which also becomes enriched in genes that are downregulated upon circHIPK3 depletion. By mining eCLIP datasets and combined with RNA immunoprecipitation assays, we demonstrate that the 11-mer motif constitutes a strong binding site for IGF2BP2 in bladder cancer cell lines. Our results suggest that circHIPK3 can sequester IGF2BP2 as a competing endogenous RNA (ceRNA), leading to target mRNA stabilization. As an example of a circHIPK3-regulated gene, we focus on the STAT3 mRNA as a specific substrate of IGF2BP2 and validate that manipulation of circHIPK3 regulates IGF2BP2-STAT3 mRNA binding and, thereby, STAT3 mRNA levels. Surprisingly, absolute copy number quantifications demonstrate that IGF2BP2 outnumbers circHIPK3 by orders of magnitude, which is inconsistent with a simple 1:1 ceRNA hypothesis. Instead, we show that circHIPK3 can nucleate multiple copies of IGF2BP2, potentially via phase separation, to produce IGF2BP2 condensates. Our results support a model where a few cellular circHIPK3 molecules can induce IGF2BP2 condensation, thereby regulating key factors for cell proliferation.
-
- Cell Biology
- Computational and Systems Biology
Bats have unique characteristics compared to other mammals, including increased longevity and higher resistance to cancer and infectious disease. While previous studies have analyzed the metabolic requirements for flight, it is still unclear how bat metabolism supports these unique features, and no study has integrated metabolomics, transcriptomics, and proteomics to characterize bat metabolism. In this work, we performed a multi-omics data analysis using a computational model of metabolic fluxes to identify fundamental differences in central metabolism between primary lung fibroblast cell lines from the black flying fox fruit bat (Pteropus alecto) and human. Bat cells showed higher expression levels of Complex I components of electron transport chain (ETC), but, remarkably, a lower rate of oxygen consumption. Computational modeling interpreted these results as indicating that Complex II activity may be low or reversed, similar to an ischemic state. An ischemic-like state of bats was also supported by decreased levels of central metabolites and increased ratios of succinate to fumarate in bat cells. Ischemic states tend to produce reactive oxygen species (ROS), which would be incompatible with the longevity of bats. However, bat cells had higher antioxidant reservoirs (higher total glutathione and higher ratio of NADPH to NADP) despite higher mitochondrial ROS levels. In addition, bat cells were more resistant to glucose deprivation and had increased resistance to ferroptosis, one of the characteristics of which is oxidative stress. Thus, our studies revealed distinct differences in the ETC regulation and metabolic stress responses between human and bat cells.
