Project Director

Qin, Hong

Department Examiner

Sartipi, Mina

Department

Dept. of Computer Science and Engineering

Publisher

University of Tennessee at Chattanooga

Place of Publication

Chattanooga (Tenn.)

Abstract

Dietary restriction (DR) increases lifespan in many organisms. The effect of DR is best studied in the budding yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae; however, previous studies of the DR effect on yeast lifespan tend to be qualitative. Here, we quantitatively study the effect of DR on lifespan for a selection of gene deletions in a 168-strain set of Saccharomyces cerevisiae. Lifespans of these yeast mutants were measured in YPD with 2% glucose and 0.05% glucose conditions. To quantify the aging process and its influence by DR, we fit yeast lifespan data with a three-parameter network aging model that is informative of the gene network changes during aging. We estimated three parameters – initial mortality rate, initial virtual age, and average gene interactions per essential gene from yeast lifespans. We compared these parameters for mutants that can shorten or extend lifespan under DR conditions. Data-mining approaches using R-based programming software were performed to find statistically significant associations between the network aging parameters and genotype-dependent responses to DR. In both cases of shortening and extending lifespan, the genes which had a major effect upon removal resulted in an increase in average gene interactions under DR conditions. It was also observed that for a majority of genes causing noteworthy changes in lifespan, there existed a directly proportional relationship between shortening or extending lifespan and how that gene positively or negatively influences initial mortality rate as well as initial virtual age. A few exceptional genes to these trends were identified, discussed, and noted as potential subjects of future study.

Acknowledgments

UTC Honors College Student Research Fellowships; UTC Office of Undergraduate Research and Creative Endeavor (URaCE); National Science Foundation Career award: #1453078 (transferred to #1720215)

Degree

B. S.; An honors thesis submitted to the faculty of the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga in partial fulfillment of the requirements of the degree of Bachelor of Science.

Date

8-2018

Subject

Yeast; Saccharomyces cerevisiae

Keyword

Saccharomyces cerevisiae; Cellular aging; Dietary restriction; Replicative lifespan; Molecular aging

Discipline

Computer Sciences

Document Type

Theses

Extent

68 leaves

DCMI Type

Text

Language

English

Rights

http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/InC/1.0/

License

http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/3.0/

Date Available

9-1-2018

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