Model Organisms in Aging Research: Evolution of Database Annotation and Ortholog Discovery

This study aims to analyze the exploration degree of popular model organisms by utilizing annotations from the UniProtKB (Swiss-Prot) knowledge base. The research focuses on understanding the genomic and post-genomic data of various organisms, particularly in relation to aging as an integral model for studying the molecular mechanisms underlying pathological processes and physiological states.

Having characterized the organisms by selected parameters (numbers of gene splice variants, post-translational modifications, etc.) using previously developed information models, we calculated proteome sizes: the number of possible proteoforms for each species. Our analysis also involved searching for orthologs of human aging genes within these model species.

Our findings indicate that genomic and post-genomic data for more primitive species, such as bacteria and fungi, are more comprehensively characterized compared to other organisms. This is attributed to their experimental accessibility and simplicity. Additionally, we discovered that the genomes of the most studied model organisms allow for a detailed analysis of the aging process, revealing a greater number of orthologous genes related to aging.

The results highlight the importance of annotating the genomes of less-studied species to identify orthologs of marker genes associated with complex physiological processes, including aging. Species that potentially possess unique traits associated with longevity and resilience to age-related changes require comprehensive genomic studies.