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The dangers lurking in the genetic background

Nature Reviews Genetics volume 12, page 742 (2011)Cite this article

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In various model organisms, overexpression of sirtuins has been reported to extend lifespan, and sirtuins have been proposed to be mediators of the lifespan-increasing effects of dietary restriction or resveratrol. However, these findings have been subject to challenges.

To control for potentially confounding genetic background effects, Burnett et al. outcrossed sir-2.1-overexpressing Caenorhabditis elegans mutants. This eliminated the effect of sir-2.1 on lifespan, despite it still being overexpressed. Instead, the authors isolated the effect on lifespan to a previously unrecognized mutation in the original sir-2.1-overexpressing strain that was removed during outcrossing.

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ORIGINAL RESEARCH PAPERS

  1. Burnett, C. et al. Absence of effects of Sir2 overexpression on lifespan in C. elegans and Drosophila. Nature 477, 482–485 (2011)

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  2. Viswanathan, M. & Guarente, L. Regulation of Caenorhabditis elegans lifespan by sir-2.1 transgenes. Nature 477, E1–E2 (2011)

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  1. Darren J. Burgess
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Burgess, D. The dangers lurking in the genetic background. Nat Rev Genet 12, 742 (2011). https://doi.org/10.1038/nrg3089

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