Understanding Longevity: SIN-3 and DAF-16 Revealed as Independent Players in Lifespan Regulation.

Aging is the process of gradual physio-biochemical deterioration. Although aging is inevitable, healthy aging is the key to individual and communal well-being. Therefore, it is essential to understand the regulation of aging.

SIN-3 functions through multi-protein interaction to regulate apoptosis, autophagy, and longevity in Caenorhabditis elegans.

SIN3/HDAC is a multi-protein complex that acts as a regulatory unit and functions as a co-repressor/co-activator and a general transcription factor. SIN3 acts as a scaffold in the complex, binding directly to HDAC1/2 and other proteins and plays crucial roles in regulating apoptosis, differentiation, cell proliferation, development, and cell cycle. However, its exact mechanism of action remains elusive.

Genome and transcriptome analysis of the mealybug Maconellicoccus hirsutus: Correlation with its unique phenotypes.

Mealybugs are aggressive pests with world-wide distribution and are suitable for the study of different phenomena like genomic imprinting and epigenetics. Genomic approaches facilitate these studies in absence of robust genetics in this system. We sequenced, de novo assembled, annotated Maconellicoccus hirsutus genome.

Epigenetic regulation and transcriptional memory in development; selection facilitating prudence.

The epigenetic mechanisms regulating developmental gene expression are examples of a strategy to generate unique expression profiles with global regulators controlling several genes. In a simplified view, a common set of tools, that include DNA motif recognizing proteins (recruiters), binding/interacting surfaces (ARPs- actin related proteins), epigenetic writers (histone methyltransferases, acetylases), readers (chromatin remodeling proteins, PRC1 members) and erasers (demethylases, deacetylases) form complexes which not only regulate transcription, but also retain the transcriptional memory through mitosis. There are two arms of epigenetic regulation: covalent modification of DNA and the post-translational modification of histones.