Dr N Zhang
Applications accepted all year round
About the Project
Research into the biology of aging in different model organisms has identified several signalling pathways affecting lifespan. Among them, the conserved TOR pathway regulate lifespan in organisms from yeast to mammals. Active signalling through TOR limits lifespan in budding yeast, nematodes, fruit flies, and mice. The TOR pathway controls many aspects of cell physiology, promoting ribosome biogenesis, translation (and thus cell growth) and proliferation, but also inhibiting autophagy and the stress response. We use the yeast S.cerevisiae as a model to address how starvation-induced stress response is regulated and how this regulation is related to chronological aging.
Currently, two complementary approaches are adopted to address the issue. One is to reveal the genetic interaction network governing stress response and chronological aging. The other is to elucidate the molecular mechanisms by which the nutrient starvation signals are transmitted and converged on starvation-induced gene expression. Furthermore, the knowledge gained from both approaches is being applied to develop novel expression systems for biotechnology.
References
Zhang N*, Quan Z, Rash B and Oliver SG* (2013) Synergistic effects of TOR and proteasome pathways on the yeast transcriptome and cell growth. Open Biology, 3(5):120137.
Zhang N* and Oliver SG (2010) The transcription activity of Gis1 is modulated by proteasome-mediated limited proteolysis. J. Biol. Chem. 285, 6465-6476
Wu J, Zhang N, Hayes A, Panoutsopoulou K, Oliver SG. 2004 Global analysis of nutrient control of gene expression in Saccharomyces cerevisiae during growth and starvation. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 101(9):3148-53.
Johnson SC, Rabinovitch PS, Kaeberlein M. 2013 mTOR is a key modulator of ageing and age-related disease. Nature. 493(7432):338-45.
Continue with Facebook
