A new transcription-based clock reads the biological age of an organism

Using the organism model Caenorhabditis elegans, researchers at the University of Cologne have developed an ‘aging clock’ that reads the biological age of an organism directly from its gene expression, the tar -writing.

Bioinformatician David Meyer and geneticist Dr Björn Schumacher, director of the Institute for Genome Stabilization in Aging and Disease at the CECAD Group of Excellence in Aging Research and the Center for Molecular Medicine Cologne (CMMC), will describe the age of BiT (binarized). transcriptomic age clock) in the article ‘BiT age: A transcription-based aging clock near the theoretical limit of accuracy’ in Aging cell.

We all know the age of history – our age from birth. But biological age can be different from it, at times drastically. Everyone has a different age. Scientists can use older clocks to determine the biological age of an organism. To date, aging clocks such as the Horvath epigenetic clock have been based on a pattern of methylations, small chemical groups that bind to DNA and change with age. Using the transcript, the new clock takes into account the set of genes read from DNA (RNA messenger) to make proteins for the cell.

Until now, the transcription was considered too complex to identify age. Genes sometimes transcribe large amounts of mRNA, sometimes less. Thus, until now it has not been possible to develop age clocks based on gene activity. Meyer and Schumacher ‘s new approach uses a mathematical trick to eliminate the differences in gene activity. The binarized transcription clock divides genes into two groups – ‘on’ or ‘off’ – thus reducing high differentiation. This means it gets older from the transcript.

Surprisingly, this simple approach allows a very accurate prediction of biological age, near the theoretical limit of accuracy. More importantly, the aging clock also operates at a high age, which was previously difficult to quantify because the difference in gene activity is particularly high then. “

David Meyer, Bioinformatician

The age of BiT is based solely on about 1,000 different transcripts of C. elegans, for which the life cycle is certainly known. Organic models such as the nematode provide a controllable view of the aging process, allowing the detection of biomarkers and the effects of external influences such as UV radiation or long-term nutrition. to examine life.

The new aging clock allows researchers to accurately predict the pro- and anti-aging effects of gene variants and various external factors in the nematode at a young age. . The aging clock showed that the genes of the immune response as well as signaling in neurons are important for the aging process.

“BiT age can also be used to accurately and accurately predict human age. Measuring biological age is important to determine the impact of environment, diet or medications on the aging process and development of age-related diseases.This clock may therefore find wide application in aging research.Because BiT age is based solely on gene activity, it can be fundamentally applied to growth any machinery, “Schumacher explained.