Iron Metabolism in Aging and Age-Related Diseases.

Iron is a trace metal element necessary to maintain life and is also involved in a variety of biological processes. Aging refers to the natural life process in which the physiological functions of the various systems, organs, and tissues decline, affected by genetic and environmental factors. Therefore, it is imperative to investigate the relationship between iron metabolism and aging-related diseases, including neurodegenerative diseases. During aging, the accumulation of nonheme iron destroys the stability of the intracellular environment. The destruction of iron homeostasis can induce cell damage by producing hydroxyl free radicals, leading to mitochondrial dysfunction, brain aging, and even organismal aging. In this review, we have briefly summarized the role of the metabolic process of iron in the body, then discussed recent developments of iron metabolism in aging and age-related neurodegenerative diseases, and finally, explored some iron chelators as treatment strategies for those disorders. Understanding the roles of iron metabolism in aging and neurodegenerative diseases will fill the knowledge gap in the field. This review could provide new insights into the research on iron metabolism and age-related neurodegenerative diseases.

VhaAC39-1 regulates gut homeostasis and affects the health span in Drosophila.

Gut homeostasis is a dynamically balanced state to maintain intestinal health. Vacuolar ATPases (V-ATPases) are multi-subunit proton pumps that were driven by ATP hydrolysis. Several subunits of V-ATPases may be involved in the maintenance of intestinal pH and gut homeostasis in Drosophila. However, the specific role of each subunit in this process remains to be elucidated. Here, we knocked down the Drosophila gene VhaAC39-1 encoding the V0d1 subunit of V-ATPases to assess its function in gut homeostasis. Knockdown of VhaAC39-1 resulted in the loss of midgut acidity, the increase of the number of gut microbiota and the impairment of intestinal epithelial integrity in flies. The knockdown of VhaAC39-1 led to the hyperproliferation of intestinal stem cells, increasing the number of enteroendocrine cells, and activated IMD signaling pathway and JAK-STAT signaling pathway, inducing intestinal immune response of Drosophila. In addition, knockdown of VhaAC39-1 caused the disturbance of many physiological indicators such as food intake, triglyceride level and fecundity of flies, which ultimately led to the shortening of the life span of Drosophila. These results shed light on the gut homeostasis mechanisms which would help to identify interventions to promote healthy aging.

Insights into the Functions of LncRNAs in Drosophila.

Long non-coding RNAs (lncRNAs) are a class of non-coding RNAs longer than 200 nucleotides (nt). LncRNAs have high spatiotemporal specificity, and secondary structures have been preserved throughout evolution. They have been implicated in a range of biological processes and diseases and are emerging as key regulators of gene expression at the epigenetic, transcriptional, and post-transcriptional levels. Comparative analyses of lncRNA functions among multiple organisms have suggested that some of their mechanisms seem to be conserved. Transcriptome studies have found that some Drosophila lncRNAs have highly specific expression patterns in embryos, nerves, and gonads. In vivo studies of lncRNAs have revealed that dysregulated expression of lncRNAs in Drosophila may result in impaired embryo development, impaired neurological and gonadal functions, and poor stress resistance. In this review, we summarize the epigenetic, transcriptional, and post-transcriptional mechanisms of lncRNAs and mainly focus on recent insights into the transcriptome studies and biological functions of lncRNAs in Drosophila.

Gene expression patterns determine the differential numbers of dorsocentral macrochaetes between Musca domestica and Drosophila melanogaster.

The evolutionary differences in sensory bristle patterns on the thorax of dipterans are an excellent model for studying the patterns of evolutionary development. We observed that Drosophila melanogaster has two pairs of the large bristles, called macrochaetes, in the dorsocentral (DC) region of the notum, while Musca domestica retains six DC macrochaetes. To explore possible mechanism by which these two dipteran species have different numbers of DC bristles, we compared the corresponding protein sequences, the gene expression levels and the spatial expression patterns of five genes (scute, pnr, ush, hairy, and emc) for bristle development between two species. We also checked the overexpression of scute and emc in transgenic flies. The results demonstrated a strong conservation of five protein sequences between these two species. The mRNA expression of the five genes differed significantly between D. melanogaster and M. domestica. The gene expression patterns exhibited a species-specific pattern during the larval development stage. It suggests that the function of these genes has been conserved in regulating the development of macrocheates between housefly and fruit fly, whereas the gene expression levels, especially spatial expression patterns lead to species-specificity in DC bristles.

Metagenomic Study Suggests That the Gut Microbiota of the Giant Panda (Ailuropoda melanoleuca) May Not Be Specialized for Fiber Fermentation.

Bamboo-eating giant panda (Ailuropoda melanoleuca) is an enigmatic species, which possesses a carnivore-like short and simple gastrointestinal tract (GIT). Despite the remarkable studies on giant panda, its diet adaptability status continues to be a matter of debate. To resolve this puzzle, we investigated the functional potential of the giant panda gut microbiome using shotgun metagenomic sequencing of fecal samples. We also compared our data with similar data from other animal species representing herbivores, carnivores, and omnivores from current and earlier studies. We found that the giant panda hosts a bear-like gut microbiota distinct from those of herbivores indicated by the metabolic potential of the microbiome in the gut of giant pandas and other mammals. Furthermore, the relative abundance of genes involved in cellulose- and hemicellulose-digestion, and enrichment of enzymes associated with pathways of amino acid degradation and biosynthetic reactions in giant pandas echoed a carnivore-like microbiome. Most significantly, the enzyme assay of the giant panda's feces indicated the lowest cellulase and xylanase activity among major herbivores, shown by an in-vitro experimental assay of enzyme activity for cellulose and hemicellulose-degradation. All of our results consistently indicate that the giant panda is not specialized to digest cellulose and hemicellulose from its bamboo diet, making the giant panda a good mammalian model to study the unusual link between the gut microbiome and diet. The increased food intake of the giant pandas might be a strategy to compensate for the gut microbiome functions, highlighting a strong need of conservation of the native bamboo forest both in high- and low-altitude ranges to meet the great demand of bamboo diet of giant pandas.