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Updated: Sep 15, 2026

Deacetylation Assays to Unravel the Interplay between Sirtuins (SIRT2) and Specific Protein-substrates
Published on: February 27, 2016
A sirtuin's role in preventing senescence by protecting ribosomal DNA
Jean-Pierre Etchegaray1,2, Raul Mostoslavsky3,2,4
1From the Massachusetts General Hospital Cancer Center, Harvard Medical School, Boston, Massachusetts 02114.
Abstract:
Ribosomes are encoded by many copies of ribosomal DNA (rDNA) packed into the nucleolus. High rates of transcription combined with highly repetitive sequences render rDNA loci particularly vulnerable to genomic instability, a proposed underlying cause of cellular senescence. The molecular mechanisms that maintain rDNA stability have remained unclear. A new paper elucidates a sirtuin-dependent mechanism that protects rDNA loci from genomic instability and prevents cellular senescence via heterochromatin silencing mediated by the chromatin remodeler SNF2H. This finding extends our understanding of chromatin dynamics within rDNA regions and offers new mechanistic insights into aging-related pathologies associated with genomic instability.
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