Genes that control the timing of organ formation during development also control timing of aging and death, and provide evidence of a biological timing mechanism for aging.
"Although there is a large variation in lifespan from species to species, there are genetic aspects to the processes of development and aging" "We used the simple, but genetically well-studied, C. elegans worm and found genes that are directly involved in determination of lifespan. Humans have genes that are nearly identical."
Said Frank Slack, associate professor of Molecular, Cellular and Developmental Biology in an interview for eureka alerts.
A microRNA and the developmental-timing gene it controls, lin-4 and lin-14, affect patterns of cellular development at very specific stages. Slack's group found that mutations in these genes alter both the timing of the worm development stages-- and the worm lifespan.
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