I often listen to the old people saying: I have seen the old since I was a child. Many people think that the habits of childhood will accompany old age. Previous studies have also reported that early childhood environments shape their developing brain structures and strongly infl

often listen to the old people: I have seen old people since I was a child. Many people think that the habits of childhood will accompany old age. Previous studies have also reported that early childhood environments shape their developing brain structures and strongly influence whether they become healthy and accomplished people when they grow up. But the so-called "the habits brought by the womb are like this when you get old" is actually not valid.

Long time ago, scientists discovered that the interaction between genes and environment determines human development. In other words, in the genome, there is also other information that can regulate genes in addition to DNA and RNA sequences. Although this information cannot change the gene sequence, it can affect and regulate the function and characteristics of the genetic gene in other ways, thereby affecting our physical health status. This can be understood as the interaction between environmental factors and genetic factors, that is, the impact of living environment and experience on individual gene expression.

Recently, a new study on fruit fly led by researchers at the University College London found that early life experience will affect the activity of our genes in the future, and even affect the lifespan of . The study, titled "Transcriptional memory of dFOXO activation in youth curtails later-life mortality through chromatin remodeling and Xbp1", was published in the journal Nature Aging.

Source: https://doi.org/10.1038/s43587-022-00312-x

Transcription is the first and key step in gene expression , and it is also the process of linking genotype with phenotype . Transcriptional programs coordinated by the transcription factor (TFs) allow animals to develop and respond to their environment as adults. In fact, transcriptional control has been studied in two such paradigms: the programmed paradigm of development and differentiation, where permanent changes in gene expression determine the fate of cells; and the homeostatic paradigm in which cells maintain function by transiently reshaping gene expression. However, these two paradigms cannot explain certain phenomena, such as transcriptional memory, where a homeostasis transient transcription event has a lasting, developmentally similar effect on subsequent gene expression. The mechanisms supporting this transcriptional memory have attracted the attention of scientists and have been studied in-depth at the cell level.

Aging is an intrinsic process that occurs in most animals. As time increases, it will lead to an increase in susceptibility to diseases and a decrease in the possibility of survival. In humans, the formation of elderly health is shaped by many environmental variables throughout our life, and in animals. However, the mechanisms behind these long-term effects remain unclear. In this project, the authors examine transcriptional memory in the context of longevity of female fruit flies. "The health of old age depends in part on a person's experience at a young age and even in the uterus. Here, we determined a way of behaving to see if changes in gene expression in youth can form a 'memory' that affects health after half a lifetime."

Researchers conducted in-depth research based on previous studies and found that fruit flies feed on a high-sugar diet early in life and have a shorter life span, even when they improve their diet in adulthood.

In previous studies, researchers found that a high-sugar diet inhibits a transcription factor called dFOXO, which is involved in glucose metabolism, and several studies have shown that it affects longevity, so they are now trying to increase dFOXO activity directly by directly increasing dFOXO. Transcription factors are the proteins that regulate information from DNA transcription or replication to messenger RNA, which is the first and critical step in gene expression. In this study, the researchers activated dFOXO by increasing their levels in female fruit flies during the first three weeks of adulthood.

transiently overexpressed dfoxo in the fat body and intestine of adult females, using induction driver S106, and feeding inducer RU486. (Source: https://doi.org/10.1038/s43587-022-00312-x)

They found that these early experiences resulted in changes in chromatin (a mixture of DNA and a "packaged" protein that can be considered DNA), which persists and causes genes to be expressed in different ways in later years. This offsets some of the expected changes during normal aging, ultimately improving health in later years and affects the lifespan of fruit flies after more than a month (half the lifespan of fruit flies).

dfoxo switch induces continuous changes in chromatin structure and requires chromatin remodeling to live long. (Source: https://doi.org/10.1038/s43587-022-00312-x)

Researchers said: "What humans or animals experience in the early stages of life may affect the behavior of their genes in the later stages of life, and this behavior may be good or bad. For example, bad dietary behavior in the early stages of life can affect the metabolism of in the later stages of by adjusting the expression of our genes. Even though dietary structure and behavior have changed a lot over the years, luckily, this change is likely to be reversed.

age-related changes in chromatin tissue are a key sign of aging. , They are prevalent on different species, cell types, and time scales and are accompanied by transcriptional dysregulation. Although this epigenetic and gene expression transcriptional control dysfunction is often hypothesized to be the cause of aging, there has only recently been direct evidence to prove their relationship. This study shows that preserving or restoring young epigenetic and transcriptional programs through relatively short interventions can promote health and longevity, and that such changes can be regulated before the onset of aging visible to the naked eye.

The authors finally added: "Now we know how gene expression memory persists throughout the entire life cycle to influence gene activity, we may be able to develop ways to counteract these changes in the later stages of life to stay healthy and keep people healthy for longer. ”

In short, we should maintain good living and eating habits, eat reasonably, and exercise at the beginning, so as to ensure the length and quality of our lives.