Publications by authors named "Kathrin Garschall"
Many animals share a lifelong capacity to adapt their growth rates and body sizes to changing environmental food supplies. However, the cellular and molecular basis underlying this plasticity remains only poorly understood. We therefore studied how the sea anemones Nematostella vectensis and Aiptasia (Exaiptasia pallida) respond to feeding and starvation.
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- Research on aging has revealed insights from model organisms, but the role of natural genetic variations in longevity is still poorly understood.
- A study of fruit fly lines selected for delayed reproduction and increased longevity over 35 years found immunity-related genes, especially in the Toll pathway, were involved in longevity rather than commonly known longevity genes.
- Functional experiments showed that long-lived flies have altered immune responses that enhance survival against infections, indicating that changes in immune function may play a critical role in extending lifespan.
Here, we provide a brief review of the mechanistic connections between immunity and aging-a fundamental biological relationship that remains poorly understood-by considering two intertwined questions: how does aging affect immunity, and how does immunity affect aging? On the one hand, aging contributes to the deterioration of immune function and predisposes the organism to infections ("immuno-senescence"). On the other hand, excessive activation of the immune system can accelerate degenerative processes, cause inflammation and immunopathology, and thus promote aging ("inflammaging"). Interestingly, several recent lines of evidence support the hypothesis that restrained or curbed immune activity at old age (that is, optimized age-dependent immune homeostasis) might actually improve realized immune function and thereby promote longevity.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFMechanisms that ensure and maintain the stability of genetic information are fundamentally important for organismal function and can have a large impact on disease, aging, and life span. While a multi-layered cellular apparatus exists to detect and respond to DNA damage, various insults from environmental and endogenous sources continuously affect DNA integrity. Over time this can lead to the accumulation of somatic mutations, which is thought to be one of the major causes of aging.
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- Researchers developed a VNTR-based tool for accurately identifying different Wolbachia strains in tsetse flies, particularly effective for several species like Glossina morsitans and Glossina brevipalpis.
- The study reveals that some Wolbachia infections can evade detection using standard PCR methods because they occur at low levels, but a more sensitive PCR-blot technique significantly improves detection rates, especially in lab-reared specimens.
- It was found that hybrid tsetse flies exhibit much higher levels of Wolbachia, which could influence their fitness and potentially lead to the formation of new species.