Aging mice show a decreasing correlation of gene expression within genetic modules

Area of Science:

• Genomics
• Molecular Biology
• Aging Research

Background:

• Gene co-expression networks are crucial for understanding cellular function.
• Aging is associated with significant transcriptional alterations.
• Previous studies have not fully elucidated large-scale changes in gene co-expression during aging.

Purpose of the Study:

• To develop and apply a method for differential analysis of gene co-expression networks.
• To investigate large-scale transcriptional changes associated with aging in mice.
• To identify functional gene groups exhibiting altered co-expression patterns with age.

Main Methods:

• Derived synonymous gene co-expression networks from AGEMAP expression data for young and aged mice.
• Applied differential network analysis to identify age-related changes in gene co-expression.
• Investigated the role of transcription factors and chromosomal location in co-expression decline.

Main Results:

• Identified numerous functional gene groups with changing co-expression patterns during aging.
• Observed a modular, rather than uniform, decline in gene correlation with age.
• Found that targets of the NF-KappaB transcription factor showed decreased expression correlation with age.
• Noted a tendency for genes with declining co-expression to be chromosomally co-located.

Conclusions:

• Aging in mice is characterized by a modular decline in gene co-expression.
• Both chromosomal organization and specific transcription factors, such as NF-KappaB, contribute to age-related co-expression changes.