Wednesday, March 1, 2017 The Nugget Newspaper, Sisters, Oregon
Ore. lawmaker Genes help protect against stress
“This class of LLC genes in the OSU College of Science
looks to
By David Staut2
appear to become active and and College of Engineering,
respond to some of the stresses and co-senior author on the
replace
C O R VA L L I S
— most common in aging, such study, some LLC genes are
Researchers at Oregon State as cellular and molecular known to play roles in seques-
University have discovered damage, oxidative stress, or tering improperly “folded”
state bird
that a subset of genes involved even some disease states,” proteins or helping them
Correspondent
SALEM (AP) — An
Oregon lawmaker says the
current state bird is unorigi-
nal, and instead wants to
replace it.
The Statesman Journal
reports that state Sen. Fred
Girod sponsored a resolution
to replace the Western mead-
owlark as Oregon’s state bird
with the osprey.
The Stayton Republican
says the meadowlark is also
the state bird of Kansas,
Montana, Nebraska, North
Dakota and Wyoming, mak-
ing it unoriginal. He also
says the meadowlark is no
longer commonly seen in
Oregon, making it an inap-
propriate choice. Girod says
the osprey can be found
throughout Oregon and
better captures the state’s
spirit.
Salem Audubon Society
president Ray Temple says
meadowlarks are declin-
ing and could use the extra
attention of being the state
bird.
in daily circadian rhythms, or
the “biological clock,” only
become active late in life
or during periods of intense
stress when they are most
needed to help protect critical
life functions.
The findings, made in
research done with fruit flies
and published today in Nature
Communications, are part of a
unique stress response mech-
anism that was previously
unknown.
These genes may help to
combat serious stresses asso-
ciated with age, disease, or
environmental challenges,
and help explain why aging
is often accelerated when the
biological clock is disrupted.
This group of genes,
whose rhythmic activity late
in life had not previously been
understood, were named “late-
life cyclers,” or LLCs, by for-
mer OSU graduate student
and lead author of the study,
Rachael Kuintzle. At least 25
such genes become rhythmic
with age, and the function of
some of them remains unclear.
said Jadwiga Giebultowicz, a
professor in the OSU College
of Science, co-senior author
on the study and international
expert on the mechanisms
and function of the biological
clock.
“Aging is associated with
neural degeneration, loss of
memory and other problems,
which are exacerbated if clock
function is experimentally
disrupted. The LLC genes are
part of the natural response
to that, and do what they can
to help protect the nervous
system.”
The increased, rhythmic
expression of these genes dur-
ing times of stress, scientists
said, are another example of
just how biologically impor-
tant circadian rhythms are,
as they help to regulate the
activity of hundreds of genes
essential to the processes of
life. And as aging brings with
it a host of new problems, the
LLC genes become more and
more active.
Acco rd i n g t o Dav i d
Hendrix, an assistant professor
refold. This could help prevent
formation of protein aggre-
gates that can lead to age-
related neurodegeneration.
Discovery of LLC genes may
provide ... t2e answer to w2y
t2e disruption of circadian
clocks accelerates aging
symptoms.
— David Hendrix
“Discovery of LLC genes
may provide a missing link,
the answer to why the dis-
ruption of circadian clocks
accelerates aging symptoms,”
Hendrix said.
The study also showed
that intense stress at any point
in life can cause some of the
LLC genes to spring into
action.
“In experiments where we
created artificial oxidative
stress in young fruit flies, the
LLC genes were rhythmically
activated,” said Eileen Chow,
an OSU faculty research assis-
tant and co-author. “Some of
these same genes are known
to be more active in people
who have cancer. They appear
to be a double-edged sword,
necessary during times of
stress but possibly harmful if
activated all the time.”
Circadian rhythms, which
are natural to an organism but
synchronized by the light/dark
cycle of a 24-hour day, are so
important to life that the same
genes controlling biological
processes have been traced
from fruit flies to humans,
retained through millions of
years of evolution.
These genes are found
throughout the nervous sys-
tem and peripheral organs,
and affect everything from
sleep to stress reaction, feed-
ing patterns, DNA repair, fer-
tility and even the effective-
ness of medications.
People with routine dis-
ruptions of their circadian
rhythms and sleep patterns
have been found to have a
shorter lifespan and be more
prone to cancer.
This research was sup-
ported by the National
Institutes of Health.
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