Ageing-associated changes in the expression of lncRNAs in human tissues reflect a transcriptional modulation in ageing pathways. (January 2020)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Marttila, Saara; Chatsirisupachai, Kasit; Palmer, Daniel; de Magalhães, João Pedro
• Is Part Of: Mechanisms of ageing and development. Volume 185(2020)
• Publication Date: 2020-01
• Subjects: Aging -- Transcriptomics -- lncRNA -- ncRNA; Aging -- Periodicals; Developmental biology -- Periodicals; Aging -- Periodicals; Developmental Biology -- Periodicals; Vieillissement -- Périodiques; Biologie du développement -- Périodiques; Aging; Developmental biology; Periodicals; 612.67
• DOI: 10.1016/j.mad.2019.111177
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 0047-6374

Abstract

Highlights: Ageing-associated changes in the expression of lncRNAs are highly tissue-specific. Ageing-associated lncRNAs are associated with similar functions across tissues. Ageing-associated changes in lncRNAs mirror those observed for protein coding genes. Abstract: Ageing-associated changes in the protein coding transcriptome have been extensively characterised, but less attention has been paid to the non-coding portion of the human genome, especially to long non-coding RNAs (lncRNAs). Only a minority of known lncRNAs have been functionally characterised; however, a handful of these lncRNAs have already been linked to ageing-associated processes. To gain more information on the effects of ageing on lncRNAs, we identified from GTEx data lncRNAs that show ageing-associated expression patterns (age-lncRNAs) in 29 human tissues in 20-79-year-old individuals. The age-lncRNAs identified were highly tissue-specific, but the protein coding genes co-expressed with the age-lncRNAs and the functional categories associated with the age-lncRNAs showed significant overlap across tissues. Functions associated with the age-lncRNAs, including immune system processes and transcription, were similar to what has previously been reported for protein coding genes with ageing-associated expression pattern. As the tissue-specific age-lncRNAs were associated with shared functions across tissues, they may reflect the tissue-specific fine-tuning of the common ageing-associated processes. The present study can be utilised as a resource when selecting and prioritising lncRNAs for further functional analyses.